6.01.00
The Unbearable Lightness of Being W.

5.30.00
Cold Beer, (Not) Here!

5.22.00
One China's Glorious Day

5.18.00
The New Patriotism

5.15.00
Boxing Out Gore

5.08.00
McCain Endorses — But How Fervently?

5.08.00
Gilligan’s Folly

5.05.00
You Gotta Have "It"

5.02.00
The "Conservative" Gore

5.01.00
A Stray Thot

eorge W. Bush did just fine on "Hardball" the other night — no major gaffes, basically a winning performance. What was most notable about the appearance was how prominently Bush's easy nonchalence was on display, both its upside and its potential drawbacks.

First, the problems. Bush says he takes none of this too seriously — and means it. Sometimes he doesn't even seem to follow the campaign. When Chris Matthews asked him about the famous "who would you rather date?" focus group, Bush seemed to be hearing of it for the first time. Does he read the newspapers, or at least The Hotline? Later, when Matthews asked Bush a familiar death-penalty question — why does an anti-government conservative trust the government to get it right in capital cases? — Bush didn't seem to follow the logic of the query.

Relatively minor matters perhaps — it's not calling Soviet-occupied Poland free, for instance — but they could tell over the course of the campaign, and certainly play into the idea that Bush is "not ready."

On the other hand, Bush's ease with himself, the fact that he takes himself with a grain of salt, is SO refreshing. He's at his easy-going best explaining how he never imagined he'd be running for president — a nice contrast with the "viability within the system" conniving of Clinton, and the strained "daddy's boy" ambition of Prince Albert. There may be a sense in the American public that Clinton/Gore just wanted it too much, which is why they engaged in such dubious practices and brought a poisonous partisanship to Washington.

Then again, maybe not. The crucial question the electorate has in considering George W. Bush is how to regard his geniality — a lack of seriousness, or just the antidote for Bill Clinton's Washington?

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