Bush Finds It a Lot Easier to Sound, Act Presidential

George W. Bush sat in front of a roaring fire Wednesday morning at the Texas Governor’s Mansion, an all-but-declared top White House appointee at his side, and talked foreign policy.

And he said he knows who he wants for key Cabinet and administration positions but is waiting to make formal offers until the legal battles over Florida’s presidential votes are over. The woman sitting next to him, his campaign foreign policy advisor Condoleezza Rice, he said, “is on the list.”

For the Republican presidential candidate, it was a tableau reminiscent of the one he created in the same room three days after the election: a scene of him flanked by top advisors in an Oval Office-like meeting. At the time the meeting was seen as presumptuous by many, and Bush soon retreated to the low-key setting of his ranch a couple of hours north of the Texas capital.

But this time, 29 days after the election, Bush is no longer being criticized for his efforts to appear--and sound--presidential.

On Wednesday, a cheerful Bush struck a statesmanlike note on foreign policy. Earlier he had had the second of what will now be daily briefings on national security.

“A great tradition of America has been that foreign policy has been bipartisan,” he said. “That is, as they used to say, partisanship, when it comes to foreign policy, stops at the water’s edge.”

Rice, his likely pick for national security advisor, sat with a polite half-smile, her hands resting in her lap, as Bush was asked if the election turmoil might be viewed as an opening for terrorists to strike.

“I have every confidence,” he said, “that the Clinton administration and the next administration, which I hope is the Bush administration, will do whatever it takes to send a chilling signal to terrorists that we’ll protect our property and our people.”

Bush Sees Limited U.S. Role in Mideast

On the deteriorating situation between Palestinians and Israelis in the Middle East, Bush reiterated what had been a theme in his campaign speeches: a hope for peace but a conviction that it could not be achieved under “artificial timetables” set by the United States.

The foray back into the public eye in settings more formal than his rural ranch has come as Vice President Al Gore’s chances for victory have narrowed. Observers and aides say that with more than a third of the traditional transition period now past, many people expect Bush to step forward.

“If at first you don’t succeed,” said James P. Pinkerton, a Republican strategist who worked in the administration of Bush’s father. “No Television Age president has ever been through this sort of postelection mess. When he came out before with all those advisors, it had a sort of stilted look to it. But he’s been careful since.”

And as the court cases continued in Florida and the Supreme Court this week, Bush has been back in Austin with daily photo ops. On Monday he was with Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, at the mansion with Christmas decorations as the backdrop. Tuesday he spoke to reporters on his way to work at the statehouse and later spoke at length to CBS’ “60 Minutes II” about his perspective on the election and goals for his possible presidency.

‘Oval Office’ Settings Carrying More Weight

“There seems to be a predominant sense that Bush is going to be the next president,” said Leonard Steinhorn, a professor of political communication at American University in Washington, D.C. “Before it was a lot less clear. Now, since there are fewer and fewer legal hurdles, I think Bush’s advisors are much more comfortable creating faux Oval Office settings.”

Steinhorn, who taught a course on the ongoing presidential election this fall, however, said “appearing presidential is only going to get you so far.”

“I can care less if he’s in front of a cinder-block wall,” he said. “I think the American people would like to see him hold a press conference where he demonstrates he has a commanding control of important issues.”

So far, though, Bush continues to walk a careful line, expressing confidence that he has won the election while still asking that he not be addressed as “president-elect.”

And as he has done since the start, Bush tried to stay above the legal fray, professing that he has not closely followed the court case concerning absentee ballots in Seminole County--an effort that could cost him the election if the ruling favors an attempt to toss out 15,000 absentee votes because of irregularities in how some applications were completed.

Asked about Gore’s statements that the vice president remains “optimistic” about his chances to win the White House, Bush spoke about his own feelings.

“Well, I always felt all along, from day one, that I had a good chance of winning the election,” he said. “And I’ve won it three times, so I’m hoping to win it the fourth.”