With a Grin, Bush Answers Early Charges of Aloofness

George W. Bush was in his element.

Surrounded by nearly 2,000 loyal Republicans, on a plantation outside Charleston that he visited once before while campaigning for his father, the Texas governor and presidential hopeful beamed this week as he looked out at the masses cheering him on.

As workers dumped rack after rack of steaming oysters onto long tables for the crowd, Bush raced smoothly through his basic stump speech: lower taxes, a strengthened military, education reform. He gave knowing winks to the crowd. His drawl was stronger than it had been hours earlier, at a stop before voters in snowy Michigan. He was dressed casually in an open-necked shirt and blue Windbreaker. The crowd, standing for nearly an hour, gave him rock star treatment.

“I look forward to shaking every hand that’s here,” he said to wild cheers--and then he stayed for more than an hour to do just that.

The event was yet another sign of Bush’s new attitude these days. After a shaky, sometimes stiff start, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination has opened up and settled down. He continued to demonstrate an easy manner Thursday in Portsmouth, N.H., where he deftly answered questions on subjects ranging from the war in Chechnya to HMO reform to the national debt.

Bush was widely criticized last year for running an aloof campaign, especially after a decision to skip an early debate in New Hampshire. But after three debates in recent days along with daily campaigning, Bush clearly has become far more relaxed and comfortable on the presidential campaign trail, reflecting the confidence and charm he’s projected while campaigning for governor in Texas.

“He has got his sea legs,” said Tony Fabrizio, a GOP pollster who was former Sen. Bob Dole’s chief strategist during his 1996 presidential run. “It is a big difference from running for governor to running for president. Bush is being thrust on the national stage.”

Bush appears at ease at just about all his stops these days, whether talking to reporters, signing autographs for locals or taking questions from his audience. At his Thursday morning appearance at the Portsmouth, N.H., Rotary Club at Yoken’s Restaurant (“Thar she blows,” proclaims its whale-shaped sign), he was unfazed as the audience tossed out subject after subject.

Bush, who has an adequate command of Spanish, even dropped in a word or two when bantering with a Latino business owner worried about rising health care costs. “I’ve got a couple of points I want to make,” he said, telling the man to sit down. “Sientete.”

He was equally comfortable at a town hall meeting that night in Londonderry, N.H., joking with the crowd and straightforwardly handling tough questions about rumors of past drug use.

“You’re making an assumption about me,” Bush said to one man who questioned him about the rumors. “You really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

That’s not to say Bush hasn’t had his share of flubs. Part of his stump speech focuses on education. On Tuesday, talking to a crowd of several hundred at a cavernous civic center in Florence, S.C., Bushed decried those who ignore educational programs that produce no results--inadvertently revealing a temporary shortcoming in his own grammar skills.

“What’s not fine is rarely is the question asked, are, is our children learning?” Bush said.

Bush has a familiar way with reporters, crafting nicknames for some, engaging in running jokes with those he has known since he was first elected governor. But on occasion, Bush still stumbles. Under grilling by the press Wednesday, Bush struggled to respond to criticism from a religious group that charged he wasn’t doing enough for the poor.

“Every time preachers hold press conferences to opine about politics, I sometimes view that with a jaundiced eye on both sides of the political spectrum,” Bush said.

But then a reporter pointed out that Bush also had been endorsed by religious figures. After struggling to clarify his position, Bush said: “I welcome people of faith in the political process.”

He became increasingly tongue-tied as he attempted to address the apparent contradiction, trying to get more information from reporters on the specifics of the religious group’s accusations. He then paused to gather his thoughts and, finally, admitted defeat.

“Let’s start all over,” he said, “the whole conversation.”

Times staff writer Ronald Brownstein contributed to this report.