Bush Says He Believes That He Will Get Support of Buchanan’s Voters : GOP: The President holds his first White House news conference in two months. He plans to spend less time on the road.

Seeking to set a new tone in a troublesome political season, President Bush said Wednesday he is confident that Patrick J. Buchanan’s voters “will be with me in the fall.”

In his first White House news conference in two months, Bush sought to trade in his image as a frenetic candidate for that of an energetic President. He delved into such diverse topics as the economy, the role of the United States in the evolving post-Cold War world, and the British political scene. He also nominated Daniel S. Goldin, senior vice president of TRW Inc., to be director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, replacing Richard H. Truly, who was forced to resign in a dispute over agency goals.

The new approach at the White House reflects the shifting political calendar and the President’s shifting political needs. With the Buchanan threat appearing to wane after the conservative commentator’s defeat in all eight Super Tuesday states, and with fewer primaries approaching, Bush is adopting a more conventional stay-at-home strategy, campaign chairman Robert S. Teeter said.

Another campaign official said Bush’s focus will be to try to build support for his policies, in an effort to regain much of the protest vote that has gone to Buchanan in the 15 primaries so far. In most states, Buchanan has garnered roughly 30% of the vote whether he campaigned there or not.

Thus, the President is likely to try to keep the spotlight on economic matters and such other domestic issues as health care and education as he tries to build a case for his own reelection against a Democratic opponent.

Signaling this approach, he pledged to “turn this economy around,” and ticked off a laundry list of domestic problem areas, if not solutions.

“We need jobs for everyone, medical care that is available to everyone. We need to build an education system . . . we need housing that is affordable and plentiful. We need safer neighborhoods and job security,” he said.

Under questioning, Bush revisited the politically sensitive issue of the “no new taxes” pledge he made in 1988 and broke in 1990 to gain a budget agreement limiting the federal government’s discretionary spending. He said the agreement was a “total mistake--policy, political, everything else.” But he retreated moments later to praise the agreement for imposing spending caps and keeping the government functioning.

Under pressure from Buchanan for breaking the tax pledge, Bush said 10 days ago--just before primaries in Georgia and Maryland--that he regretted breaking the promise because of the political hailstorm it brought down on him.

He said Wednesday that he would fight to keep the spending caps in place and that “this would be the worst time to raise taxes.”

Asked, then, whether he would make the tax pledge again, he responded: “I’ll leave it sit right there.”

Similarly, when he was asked whether he would oppose a tax increase, “even on millionaires,” the President replied: “I don’t want to raise taxes.”

As for the challenge from Buchanan, Bush said, “you don’t have to be a . . . rocket scientist” to figure out that he would rather not have an opponent within the Republican Party.

But he ducked opportunities to call on Buchanan to give up the quest for the party’s presidential nomination. “Let each person on both sides sort out their own fate,” Bush said.

“He has said today he wants to stay in there. That’s his choice, and I’m clearly staying in there, and I think we’re doing pretty well.”

He said that in the autumn the “protest vote” that has gone to Buchanan would return to him, regardless of the economy. Bush said exit polls of Florida voters Tuesday suggested that Democrats would vote for him in November. As his source, he cited his son, Jeb Bush, who managed his Florida campaign. “And my boy is never wrong on a statistic like that,” he said.

The news conference served as a White House debut, of sorts, for a President who spent nearly three of the five weeks leading up to Super Tuesday on the road.

“He is going to be focused more on governing,” Teeter told a group of reporters Tuesday night. “We’ll see in coming weeks and months a very clear message from the President about where he thinks the country should go.”

Whether Bush should spend more time in the White House or remain on the road has been debated among campaign and White House aides. Those who argue for a Rose Garden strategy maintain, in the words of one Republican operative, “he’s President. He’s not running for dogcatcher. He needs to focus on the nation’s agenda.”

Besides, they say, even as he traversed the country over the last several weeks, his approval rating in public opinion polls continued to drop.

At the news conference, Bush said: “I think the way the vote is working out, the overwhelming endorsement in terms of these delegates and everything, I think that you’ll be seeing me here a lot.”

On other topics, Bush:

* Skirted the diplomatically sensitive prospect of injecting himself into another nation’s political affairs. He praised British Prime Minister John Major--who has called parliamentary elections for April 9--as “a superb leader” with whom he works “very, very closely.” But Bush acknowledged that he should not involve himself in “picking winners and losers” in foreign elections. “It’s easy for a candidate to go out and give an opinion on all that, but it’s not so easy for a President,” Bush said.

* Expressed differences with the authors of a Pentagon draft report that recommended the United States thwart any country that threatens its preeminent position, and that rejected collective responsibility for global stability. “I think the United States has a burden to bear,” he said. “But we have worked effectively through multilateral organizations.”

* Displayed annoyance over news leaks attributed to “some anonymous source,” and told reporters: “Please ask for a name to be placed next to the source so I can get mad at the guy who’s doing this, because it’s strange out there. It is strange.”