Politics

Beyond The Beltway Bubble

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

March 4, 2001 / 3:39 PM EST / CBS

Here's the latest Political Points analysis by CBS News Senior Political Editor Dotty Lynch.

In the six weeks since his inauguration, George W. Bush has managed to put a government together, prepare a budget and get a huge tax cut provision through the Ways and Means Committee.

All that while spending 12 days on the road appearing in over 30 media markets, making a quick trip to Mexico, and spending virtually every weekend out of the Oval Office. Following his speech to Congress last week, he went directly to Pittsburgh, Council Bluffs, Omaha, Little Rock and Atlanta. And in the next few weeks he'll hit the Midwest - including Chicago and both Dakotas - and then to Louisiana and the Florida Panhandle. And, of course, work in a weekend on the ranch in Texas in between.

The son of a former White House occupant who always referred to the nation's capitol during the campaign as "Washington, DC," is following a strategy pursued by Ronald Reagan and perfected by Bill Clinton of getting "outside the Beltway" where there are "real people." These real people also tend to have local press corps who cover a presidential visit on education and taxes as a straightforward and upbeat event rather than as an excuse to pick apart syntax or fixate on the details of plans. Those are the ways of the Washington, DC press corps, who are once again grumbling about lack of access and a president who campaigns all the time.

The Bush team is honing and refining the Clinton model. The road trips which are part of a long term political strategy are organized by Tucker Eskew, an up-and-coming South Carolinian and Karl Rove's fair-haired boy, who heads the White House Office of Media Affairs. He oversees all media "with the exception of the White House press corps" who are in Press Secretary Ari Fleischer's playpen. Eskew says that Mr. Bush's travels (about one third of his time in the next few months) are targeted to communicate though local media to key demographic groups (read: Hispanics, for one), political players (read: swing Democrats like Zell Miller, Mary Landrieu, and Tim Johnson) and geographical prizes (read: the Florida Panhandle, which will be crucial again in 2004 - and media markets which hit several states, like Knoxville which hits Georgia as well as Tennessee.).

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There actually appears to be a bit less criticism in Washington about Mr. Bush's strategy than Mr. Clinton's. Mr. Bush has benefited from Mr. Reagan's and Mr. Clinton's success in paving the way, but Mr. Bush has also played it smart with the Beltway crowd. He made the obligatory pilgrimage to the Georgetown soiree of The Washington Post's Kay Graham and her "A" list. And, rather than lecturing them on the evils of the Washington as Mr. Clinton did to their horror in 1992, he said how honored he was to be there, invoked his mom and dad, and mainly schmoozed big time. His staff is also a bit more deferent. Jeff Eller, who had Tucker Eskew's job with Mr. Clinton, publicly delighted in telling the White House press corps he was going around them. Mr. Eskew refers to them as being a part of "one big mission."

And then there's Dick Cheney. There's nothing Washington likes more than someone who's been here before. And, as Cheney constantly points out, this is his fourth tour of duty. It was Cheney who put together the budget (with a small group of powerful advisors "with little hands on involvement of the President" according to The Washington Post) and Cheney who stays on top of foreign policy. Cheney told the National Association of Manufacturers this week that he has an "informal weekly lunch" with Secretary of State Colin Powell, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice to coordinate foreign affairs.

The buzz during the transition was that Cheney's dominance was making Mr. Bush look weak and irrelevant. But the Bushies say this doesn't worry W. at all. And maybe he's right to relax. A CBS Poll question on whether Mr. Bush is really running the country turned in his favor this week, at least among people who watched his first prime-time speech. 61 percent of those who watched now think that he'll be in charge of what goes on in his administration, while 39 percent say other people will be running the country. However, among the non-viewers, 40 percent believe "Bush is in charge," compared to 60 percent who say "other people" would be in charge.

The Bushies are betting, however, that some of those non-viewers will be watching the weather and sports in Fargo and Winnetka when the president comes to town, will hear "unfettered" about how wonderful he'll make their schools and their bank accounts, and won't worry too much about who's in charge, either.