GEORGE W. BUSH knows how to keep a secret. He got the first draft of the acceptance speech he’ll deliver this week at the Republican National Convention while vacationing in early June at the Bush family retreat in Kennebunkport, Maine. He’s been tinkering with it ever since. He discussed it with speechwriter Michael Gerson for the first time as they sat relaxing at the Bush summer home. Until last week, only three advisers — strategist Karl Rove, spokeswoman Karen Hughes, and Gerson — had seen the speech. Input from a few more aides — issues czar Josh Bolten, media consultant Mark McKinnon — has now been sought. But President Bush, the candidate’s father, was kept out of the loop. “I don’t think the old man’s heard a word of it,” says Rove.
The speech had better be good. It’s one of the four tasks Bush must complete successfully to win the presidency on November 7. He did fine on the first, the selection of a vice presidential running mate, though Dick Cheney was initially left undefended as he took flak from Democrats and the media. The second is the speech. Bush has an advantage over Gore (and over his father in 1988): He doesn’t have to relaunch himself and his campaign in the speech. He’ll stick with being a “compassionate conservative” and “a different kind of Republican.” The final two tasks — warding off nuclear attacks by Democrats on his Texas record and debating Gore — come later.
Bush aims to achieve three things in his speech. First, he wants to show he’s a strong leader. This may be better left to others, such as Colin Powell. At some point in the convention, Bush is likely to make sure the nation knows Powell will serve in his administration, if there is one. Second, he’s eager to leave the impression he’s different from Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay. No problem there. He’s all but said so a thousand times. And third, Bush feels he must show he knows what the job of being president is all about — in other words, the seriousness of being commander-in-chief.
That’s not all there is to it, though. He’s got to present some substance. So he’ll offer his critique of the Clinton-Gore administration in some form other than a slashing attack. If there’s anything the Bush crowd is bent on not repeating, it’s the 1992 GOP convention in Houston, which featured bare-knuckle speeches by Patrick Buchanan and others. In Houston, President Bush’s acceptance speech was still being written minutes before he mounted the podium, and he failed to outline a governing agenda. This week, Bush will spell out the issues he’s been talking up for the past year: saving Social Security and Medicare, cutting taxes, rebuilding the military, taking the next steps in welfare reform, and improving education. Bush, says Rove, “believes in repetition of the message.”
Doesn’t sound like a speech that will electrify the nation, does it? The Bush plan is to overcome this not with a few memorable lines — the campaign is said to have had trouble coming up with those — and not by raising the stakes in the race, but with the force of Bush’s personality. Bush has repeatedly told his aides to make the speech more direct, simple, and personal. One adviser says the speech is supposed to be “from the heart.” Bush wants it to be “passionately personal,” which means more personal than any presidential nominee’s acceptance speech yet uttered and more personal than any speech he’s ever given. He wants, according to a senior aide, “to confirm in people’s minds who Bush is and the best things about him.” He’ll have succeeded if he creates the image of a candidate whose agenda is distinct from anyone else’s and of a man who is personally different from the ordinary run of politicians.
If there’s to be an assault on Gore, Cheney and others will handle it. When Cheney met with Bush speechwriters, they were surprised to find how tough on the Clinton-Gore era he is. His wife, Lynne, joined that session and was even more scornful of the Clinton years than her husband was. Cheney’s speech will reflect his (and maybe her) disdain. The Bush campaign was also pleased with the draft of John McCain’s speech, to be delivered Tuesday night of the convention. They approved the McCain speech without alteration. McCain will campaign with Bush during the week after the convention.
Since he announced for the presidency in June 1999, Bush has given a half-dozen first-rate speeches, all written by Gerson and most of them on policy matters. For the nationally televised convention address, Gerson spent more time than usual. He left Bush campaign headquarters in Austin in late May for the solitude of an apartment in College Station, Texas, that Rove had arranged for him, and came back 10 days later with a draft. It was well received by the incrowd that saw it.
This was hardly a surprise. Bush and Gerson hit it off from the moment they met in Washington in early 1999, and Gerson has been able to capture in speeches the compassionate but morally stringent quality that Bush wants to convey. Still, it’s anything but certain that Bush will deliver the convention speech well. He has struggled with a Tele-PrompTer before. He used one in a speech to AIPAC in Washington last spring and looked like a man watching a slow-moving tennis match. In recent weeks, he has practiced the speech repeatedly with a Tele-PrompTer. Sometimes practice makes perfect. We’ll soon know if it has with Bush.
Fred Barnes is executive editor of THE WEEKLY STANDARD.
