How Bush Governs

George W. Bush's six years as Texas governor, including one year as presidential candidate, provide some clues to what the Bush governing style will look like.

From his nomination speech at the GOP convention ("I have no stake in the bitter arguments of the last few years") to the third presidential debate, where he spent the evening denouncing the "bickering" in Washington, D.C., Bush ran on a promise to "change the tone in Washington."

The implied promise of Bush's campaign boast of a Texas record of can-do bipartisanship was that he could work the same voodoo on Capitol Hill Democrats.

But it's not clear if the easy rapport he enjoyed with conservative Lone Star Democrats can be replicated with dance partners like David Bonior and Richard Gephardt (not to speak of Hillary Clinton).

One of the keys to his success as a first term governor was the friendship he forged with the late Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock, a Democrat whom Bush cultivated before he was even elected. Bush also met with almost every state legislator before his inauguration.

This time, he's declined to meet even with the vice president so far.

University of Texas political scientist Bruce Buchanan says Bush's preferred way of getting legislation approved in Texas is an "inside game" in which he works with the rival party to achieve compromise.

For example, Buchanan says, in 1997 Bush announced a tax bill in his State of the State address without laying the necessary groundwork with legislative leaders. Democrats resisted. In the end, rather than launch a PR campaign to bring political pressure on the Democrats, Bush agreed to major changes made by Democratic legislators and "claimed victory with a fig leaf tax cut."

"He's one who likes to do these things collegially not confrontationally," says Buchanan. "To go public with it risks alienating those good working relationships for future measures."

Buchanan expects more behind-the-scenes compromise because neither the current environment - a virtual 50-50 split in Congress - nor Bush's natural inclination towards common ground points to a confrontational strategy.

Another predictor of how Bush will approach the agenda is his other boast on his Texas record, that he campaigned on four goals in Texas and delivered all four: juvenile criminal justice reform, tort reform, welfare reform and education

"He realizes if you have too many goals, you don't have any goals," Bush campaign chairman Don Evans told Time magazine.

Bush's presidential campaign agenda may be distilled to a four- or five-point list, but they're behemoths: lowering taxes, reforming education, changing Social Security, boosting the military and providing prescription drug coverage to seniors.

While Bush's ability to create consensus around one of those divisive issues may depend on the willingness of Democrats to play ball, West Wing staffers know just what to expect ased on how the Austin shop was run.

Bush's management style was perhaps best described by the man himself in a recent interview with CBS News's Scott Pelley: "I'm a delegator. I surround myself with the very best people I can find. And I set goals. And I delegate. And I hold people accountable for achieving the goals."

That squares with the accounts of aides and journalists who worked in Austin with Bush, who has a well-documented penchant for cut-to-the-chase policy debates and quick decision-making.

"I'm a decider," he told the Washington Post. "I do not agonize. I think, I listen, and I trust my instincts and I trust the advice I get." Bam.

Bush expects aides who brief him on policy matters to be prepared to recommend action, and he will sometimes ask to hear only what he needs to know.

That m.o. should make economical use of the president's valuable time, but even so, Bush may need to change some of his work habits.

In Austin, he was accustomed to starting work between 8 and 9 a.m., breaking for a couple hours midday to work out, then resuming work until around 5:30 p.m., when he would knock off for dinner or some take-home reading.

Bush's preference for comity extends to relations with the press.

Wayne Slater of the Dallas Morning News says the personal touch Bush used on national reporters during the campaign - nicknaming journalists and remembering personal details like their children's names - is one of his Texas tricks.

Until the final weeks of the presidential campaign, Bush gave national reporters much more access than Gore did, taking questions regularly if not daily and shooting the breeze on the campaign plane.

Texas journalists who covered the governor say he was accessible. "Whenever we needed him [for comment], we could always get him," says Slater.

Bush would often drop a dime himself, calling reporters ostensibly to touch base in order to plant some information; but the job of complaining to reporters about negative coverage was handled by aides.

Of course, accessibility is not the same thing as transparency, as campaign reporters found out during the Bush DUI and Cheney heart attack stories.