Bush: a Matter of Style

President Bush held his first White House press conference on about four minutes’ notice Friday, let it run for nearly three-quarters of an hour, fielded questions with dispatch and evident confidence, and so rounded out his first seven days in office. The hastily summoned 11 a.m. meeting may have denied Bush the kind of mass audience that an evening session with live coverage by all the television networks would have offered, but that choice doesn’t mean that the President isn’t ready for prime time. Bush appeared relaxed, well-briefed and on easy terms with the White House news corps. Ronald Reagan, working from a polished text, may have been a great communicator, but George Bush, vamping it, gives an early impression of someone who’s on top of his job.

Bush has wisely decided not to follow Reagan’s practice of trying to answer reporters’ questions when they are shouted over the roar of helicopter engines on the White House lawn or inserted into photo opportunities in the Oval Office. He has indicated instead that he will meet regularly with the press, as Reagan chose not to do, though he hasn’t committed himself to any schedule. Other Presidents have also said that they would make themselves regularly accessible to reporters in order to answer questions in which the public is interested. What experience has shown is that a President’s accessibility sometimes all but vanishes as the issues that he knows he’ll be asked about become more controversial and politically embarrassing. Bush handled his first presidential press conference well. May that encourage him to have many, many more.