The New First Style Draws the Ayes of Texas

For George and Barbara Bush, the honeymoon is definitely on. At inaugural festivities that continued into the early hours of Sunday morning, the First Couple’s down-to-earth warmth and spontaneity continued to be the hot topic.

In one of the social highlights of the inaugural weekend, more than 5,500 people packed the Washington Hilton Crystal Ballroom on Saturday night for the Texas State Society’s “Black Tie and Boots” ball, an event where the men also wore furs, the women also wore hats and boots, and they danced like they really meant it.

What continued to be noticeably different from the Reagan inaugural parties was the lowered-profile of the Hollywood crowd. That large contingency that swept through town back then received the royal treatment. This time, they were there, but in smaller numbers and less-starring roles. But the place went wild when the new President and First Lady and their oldest son, George, arrived.

To a chorus of wolf whistles, Bush showed the crowd his cowboy boots, which each had a map of Texas on it.

“I’ll show you my boots. I don’t want Ann Richards to think I’m not a Texan,” said Bush, referring to the Democratic convention’s keynote speaker, Texas State Treasurer Richards, and the general campaign rhetoric that frequently painted the then-vice president as a “tourist from Kennebunkport.” The Texas party crowd howled its delight.

He then spotted someone he knew in the enormous crowd and pointed at him, barking: “There’s Rocky Carroll from Houston, the man who made these boots!”

It was more of the same from a man who began his historical inaugural address with, among his first words, “Hey, Danny!”--an ad-lib salute to the Ways and Means Committee chairman, Illinois Democrat Dan Rostenkowski, whom he spotted in the crowd. And a man who bounced out of his limousine during the inaugural parade to walk and to wave at the crowd--and then invite some of those tourists in to tour the White House the next day. Throughout the long weekend, Barbara Bush made just as big an impression as her husband, making fun of her unglamorous, size-14 self in speeches and patting White House visitors on the arm.

At the Texas ball, where yellow roses, Mexican food and Lone Star beer (drunk straight from the bottle) were everywhere, Mrs. Bush scored another big hit. As she was introduced, she drew cheers just as loud as her husband, as the men waved their cowboy hats in the air.

“All day long at our house,” she said, “people have been coming up and asking, ‘How does the President like this? How does the President like that?’ I said, ‘I don’t know!’ Then I remembered, ‘My gosh! It’s George!’ ”

Mrs. Bush went on to tell the party crowd that she “worked awfully hard this week to make you very, very proud of me. Next week I’m going back to being Barbara Bush again.” The statement brought clapping, cheering and several shouts of “We love you, Barbara!”

For some people in the crowd, the unpretentious nature of the new First Lady was nothing new.

“I’ve known Barbara Bush for many years, and I’ve always loved her,” said Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, who was a Democrat in some of those many years before he switched to Republican in 1983. “As Americans get to know her, they’ll feel the same way I do.”

Another prominent Texan in the crowd agreed.

“She’s fantastic,” said Roger Staubach, the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback. “You’re seeing the substance and depth of a great mother and a great wife. She’s been successful at what she’s done, and it’s not been easy.”

Staubach’s wife, Marianne, who had boots on her feet and little silver boots dangling from her ears, chimed in: “She’s fabulous. She’s really showing that down-home, good American values like caring for your family come through and pay off.”

Gregg Petersmeyer, who will be George Bush’s “thousand points of light man” in the Administration, overseeing the volunteer effort, said he has liked Barbara Bush since he met her 20 years ago, when he was a 19-year-old summer intern in the Nixon White House.

‘Qualities Much Admired’

“I think she’s going to be one of the most popular First Ladies in memory,” said Petersmeyer, who was Bush’s Colorado state chairman. “Her qualities are much admired. She’s direct, humorous, unassuming, unpretentious, but classy.”

The praise for Mrs. Bush was just as thick at a party that preceded the Texas ball, a reception at the Four Seasons Hotel given by a group of Houston business executives in honor of incoming Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher and his wife, Georgette.

“She has such a strong sense of self. And she’s such a warm person that she brings that out in everyone she meets,” said Georgette Mosbacher, who garnered quite a bit of attention over the weekend herself as Washington’s great hope for a new social star. “She has no pretentions about her--she’s a great role model.”

Added Secretary of State James Baker: “As she says, what you see is what you get. I think that’s what the public likes.”

Mrs. Bush has gotten off to a much better start as First Lady than Nancy Reagan, who was new to Washington and not well prepared for it. Whereas the Reagans cruised into Washington crusading against government, the Bushes are the ultimate Washington insiders who have lived here and worked in government for many years. They know and love Washington, and Washington knows and loves them--an important first step in making a good impression.

‘Transfer of Warmth’

“Barbara has done a lot for George Bush,” said John Vogt, a Washington lobbyist attending the Four Seasons cocktail party with fiancee, Lisa Richards, an Atlanta flight attendant. “In the last couple of weeks I’ve sensed this transfer of warmth; people feel more warmly about George Bush, and I believe Barbara has made a significant contribution to that transformation. People feel warm about him because they feel warm about her.”

Richards observed, “She likes her grandchildren more than fashion. Nancy Reagan was like an ideal person.”

Vogt agreed.

“So many people in American can identify with Barbara Bush--she’s a very real person,” Vogt said. “I think it’s neat that a lot of people out there can see something of themselves in her.”