Damage control

But for White House press secretary Dana Perino, crisis management has become the routine. A constant drumbeat of world events, combined with the demands of the 24-hour news cycle, have robbed Perino and her communications team of the nice, easy fade-out that they expected.

“In the fall of 2006, the day after midterm elections, the questions about the president being a lame duck started,” she said, sinking into the couch in her spacious West Wing office last week. “And we have not rested a day since.”

Perino, 36, has been the second-most-visible face of the White House for more than a year. In August 2007, the former deputy press secretary took over for Tony Snow, who resigned amid a recurrence of colon cancer. Snow died earlier this year.

“She can handle you all,” President Bush told reporters at the time. “Dana is somebody who will walk in that Oval Office and give me sound judgment and good advice. And I have found that over the course of the time I’ve known her she’s capable of doing that.”

To the White House press corps, Bush’s remarks contained a crucial message: Perino had access — something that seemed in short supply when Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan did stints as press secretary.

“I think she has a very solid relationship with the president,” said Martha Joynt Kumar, a political scientist at Towson University who has written extensively on presidential communications. “The press secretary has to be able to speak for the president and have direct conversations with the president, and it was clear that she had that.”

Perino’s day starts at 4:15 a.m. when she gets up and starts reading newspapers. Her first meeting at the White House is a 6:30 a.m. appointment with national security adviser Stephen Hadley. She rarely leaves before 7 p.m., when she heads home to watch the network news on TiVo.

“I think now we all realize we are going to be sprinting to the finish just like the president said he would,” Perino said. “I don’t think any president in the future will actually have time to rest on anything, because the world is so interconnected now, and you know about things immediately and all the world’s problems end up on the president’s desk.”

Communications at the White House is often a sales job. At the podium, the press secretary is speaking to the reporters in the room, but also to Congress, voters and a global audience. With Bush’s approval ratings at an all-time low, making the sale is tougher than ever.

“Anytime you think you are going to walk down to the podium and it’s going to be easy, you better turn around and come back to the office and get a grip,” Perino said. “Anytime you think it’s going to be easy is the time you are likely to make a mistake.”

The ongoing financial crisis and complex government bailout have significantly stepped up the challenges for Perino.

“I don’t expect everyone to agree with every decision the president makes,” she said. “But I do think they should be able to respect the decision-making process, which in my experience has been robust, where he asks a lot of tough questions and at the end of the day makes a decision. And tough decisions are not popular.”

Bush is “some kind of mad at Wall Street,” according to Perino, but is determined to fix the problem, rather than dwell on who or what is to blame.

Joe Tuman, a political scientist at San Francisco State University and an expert on Bush communications, said he’s noticed Perino struggling with financial issues, unlike national security, where she is more sure-footed.

“She is in a difficult position because she is defending someone who is leaving under a cloud of his own making,” Tuman said. “She does come across as a true believer and someone who has not lost faith with the president, but I would call that a requirement for the job.”

Perino “seems to be fulfulling her duties as the president’s spokesperson fine,” said Democratic communications strategist Jennifer Palmieri. “The problem is the president has nothing to say.”

David Jackson, White House correspondent for USA Today and a member of the White House Correspondents’ Association, said, “Dana is doing a good job under difficult circumstances.”

The presidential campaign also is putting a harsh spotlight on Bush, with the past eight years under critical scrutiny, and every move he makes viewed through a political lens.

“I don’t think that there has been an issue that comes up that fazes us anymore,” Perino said, although she conceded: “Every once in a while the press secretary will lose it.”

Perino has come to share Bush’s penchant for loyalty. Earlier this year, she fell out publicly with McClellan over his tough, critical memoir of his years with Bush. Once good friends, the two have never made up.

“It’s heartbreaking,” she said. “He hired me as his deputy press secretary, and I got here early every morning to try to help him be the best press secretary he could be. We were very close. But it’s pretty hard for me to stomach a lot of [what he said]. I don’t wish him ill. I just haven’t spoken to him. And he hasn’t spoken to me, either.”

With two and a half months left in the Bush administration, Perino is already at work on the transition process and preparing the office for her eventual successor.

Perino said she has no immediate plans to see the movie “W.,” Oliver Stone’s exploration of Bush.

“I haven’t gone to a movie in years,” she said. “If I had a choice of going to a movie theater and paying — what is it now? $15? That wouldn’t be my pick.”

After she leaves in January, Perino plans to travel with her husband, businessman Peter McMahon, including a two-week vacation in South Africa, followed by a stint volunteering on the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

“It’s something I have wanted to do since we went to Africa last February with the president,” Perino said. “It was such an experience, it’s hard to describe.  But I think one of the best ways for me to transition back to life outside the White House is to not sit and dwell on what I am going to do next but to try to help some other people.”