Bush In High Gear

It was a gathering of eagles, but they were eating like good ole boys. On Monday night last week, after George W. Bush had given his first real campaign speech of the season to Republican Governors, he invited five of them back to the White House for dinner and a chance to spend the night in the presidential mansion. Over a batter-dipped feast in his private dining room that would have given Dick Cheney's cardiologist the bends--fried shrimp, fried onion rings, corn on the cob, French fries, cole slaw and cheesecake--Bush was jovial, confident. He told the group--George Pataki of New York, Dirk Kempthorne of Idaho, Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, Jim Douglas of Vermont and his Floridian brother Jeb--that the presidential race would be close but that he would win. Bush's legendary self-confidence was on full display. "You guys have the best job in government." He smiled, leaning back. "Actually, you have the second best job in government."

Over the past two months, some Republicans have wondered whether in November Bush would manage to lose his government job. His once solid poll ratings have gone wobbly, and in a variety of surveys he even trails his likely challenger, Senator John Kerry. Now the White House is gearing up to take on Kerry and repair the damage of the past eight weeks--everything from missing weapons of mass destruction and confusing job-creation estimates to strange policy detours about Mars and steroid use.

If this were the Clinton White House, the plunging polls would have spurred hastily assembled late-night meetings, presidential phone calls to allies at all hours, a round of firings. Not so in Bushland. At the offices of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Arlington, Va., there's the same placid quality that Bush showed during his fried-food fest. The headquarters have got all the pizazz of an insurance office. Top staff have private offices that circle a vast maze, there are standard-issue cubicles, the desks are neat, most of the men wear a tie (except on casual Fridays, when jeans are the norm). Like Bush, staff members sweat only when they work out, which some seem to do to nearly the same manic degree as the President. The Clinton War Room has given way to the Bush Office Park. In this mien, the Bushies are eerily confident that things are going to turn around for them in the coming months. Here are what they see as the touchstones of their re-election:

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