Bush Offers a Preview of His Reelection Campaign
WASHINGTON — Astute listeners during President Bush's news conference Monday probably noticed that he used the phrase "more secure" a lot -- six times, in fact. For good measure, he added "safer" twice.
The repetition was no accident, of course. Although the president insisted -- as he had for months -- that he had not yet turned his attention to his upcoming reelection campaign, few in Washington took such assertions at face value.
So, few doubted that Bush, capitalizing on the capture of Saddam Hussein over the weekend, had called the news conference not only to showcase that success but also to preview his reelection campaign themes.
"In 2003, we have become a safer, more prosperous and better nation," Bush said in his opening remarks.
That was a formula he repeated several times, sometimes with little variation. In one instance, he managed to dismiss the political equation in the same breath as he was laying out his campaign themes.
"Let me just tell you what the strategy is of this administration," the president said in response to a question about withdrawing from Iraq. "Forget politics. The strategy that I've outlined in order to do my solemn duty
Holding a year-end news conference to set the stage for the State of the Union address in January and the start of the campaign season is a well-known White House tactic, said Martha Joynt Kumar, an expert on White House communications strategies.
The idea, she said, is to wait until Congress has left for the holidays and then to wrap up the year in your own language while your rivals are scattered around the country. Of course, taking advantage of a huge foreign-policy victory is a good idea too.
"This was a perfect moment for him to do this," Kumar said.
For the president, a news conference might not have seemed to be the best platform for a campaign dress rehearsal.
Bush has been less comfortable with full-dress news conferences than his predecessors, including his father. Monday's session was only his 11th formal news conference as president. By comparison, at this stage in their terms, former President Clinton had held 37 and the elder President Bush had held 70.
But on Monday, after a stiff start, the president warmed up and appeared more comfortable with the format and less defensive with his answers than in previous news conferences. And he has had three years of practice.
