White House Letter - I'm Pinch Hitting for Ms. Bumiller

There was no White House Letter today. It appears that Ms. Bumiller is on vacation. However, I've spent enough time with them to be able to help out the NYTimes. Here's a White House Letter they can feel free to use:

WHITE HOUSE LETTER

Applying Lessons Learned on the Diamond and in for the Long Haul

By ELISABETH BUMILLER

Published: April 12, 2004

ASHINGTON

It has been a rocky week in the press for the Bush Administration. From national security advisor Condoleezza Rice's presidentially-approved appearance to testify before the 9/11 Commission to the upheaval of civil order in Iraq, events have moved the campaign for the presidency off the front pages.  But Mr. Bush, who, according to his wife, Laura, reads those papers regularly, may have found something interesting in the Sports pages.

Last week marked the Opening Day of Major League Baseball. President Bush, an avid fan since childhood and a former owner of the Texas Rangers, took a short break from his tightly managed schedule to throw out the first pitch at the St. Louis Cardinal Opening Day game in the battleground state of Missouri. The normally press-shy Mr. Bush also stayed just long enough to join in announcing of the fifth inning with Cardinal radio broadcaster Mike Shannon.

	Advertisement

From his first game at the Polo Grounds to his days working as the managing general partner of the Rangers from 1989 to 1994, to his successful introduction of the T-Ball program at the White House, Mr. Bush has been a fan of the sport which, he told Mr. Shannon, is “an integral part of the fabric of our society.” It’s no coincidence that he remembers his time with the Texas team as one of the “best parts” of his life. He recalled attending possibly seventy games a year with Mrs. Bush and enjoyed telling Mr. Shannon that the “little girls were raised at the ballpark.”

Friends, who declined to be identified because it would be inconvenient, say that is in the offices of the last place team that the president honed the signature management style he uses so effectively today. His natural finesse in personal relationships allowed him to come to be regarded as as one of the most liked owners in that small club of millionaires. Bobby Valentine, former manager of the New York Mets and a manager of the Rangers during Mr. Bush’s tenure with the team remembers the day he was fired by the man who would go on to govern Texas and serve in the highest office in the land.

“I was sitting in that room and being fired. But the way he made me feel about myself was wonderful,” Valentine said.

That day was one of many examples of what has become the trademark of Mr. Bush’s management creed.  As White House aides close to him say, he manages from his strengths, which include his remarkable ability to turn even the most serious situation into a social one, solid ground for the gracious and witty former Yale fraternity man.

Although former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill recalls being fired during a telephone call from someone other than the president and did not describe any part of the experience or his feelings about himself at the time as “wonderful”, Mr. Bush has been known to use the same gifts he used during nearly a decade in the Major Leagues when managing staff and constituents today.

During his numerous campaign appearances, labelled as “conversations” by the White House, Mr. Bush clearly relishes displaying his talent for socializing about political issues. It is a measure of his likeability that he was able to recover seamlessly from a rare misstep with a woman who was part of the group of regular Americans chosen to be interviewed by Mr. Bush during an appearance at South Arkansas Community College. Mr. Bush took the opportunity to compare the hairstyle of Sammie Brierly, a blonde, to his mother’s. Mrs. Bush is famous for her white hair. “You and my mother go to the same hair-dye person,” he joked, drawing gasps from the audience. Ms. Brierly responded that she is a natural blonde. According to reports, the crowd seemed more shocked than Ms. Brierly, who aftwerward claimed that she took no offense to the comment.

Determined to stay optimistic and on track during the campaign that he fashioned and oversees personally, he moved through the rest of the event effortlessly and was on to the next item on his regimented schedule.

It seems that Mr. Bush expects everyone he meets to have learned the same lessons he did from the sport he so clearly loves. “From baseball I developed a thick skin against criticism. I learned to overlook minor setbacks and focus on the long haul."