October 16, 2007
Low in Polls, Bush Makes More Time for Friendly Crowds
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
ROGERS, Ark., Oct. 15 Out there in the rest of America, polls show that about twice as many people disapprove of President Bush as approve of him. But here in a cavernous convention center hall, Mr. Bush found nothing but admirers Monday when he answered questions during a town-hall-style meeting.
One man began by commending Mr. Bush on your steadfastness and your faith. Another concluded by saying, Thank you for being my president for the last seven years, with an emphasis on the word my. A third expressed dismay that Mr. Bush could not run for president again.
Its time for new blood, Mr. Bush replied. Plus, he added wryly, Id be single.
The friendly audience in northwest Arkansas not a single questioner criticized Mr. Bush is typical of such let-Bush-be-Bush events, which the White House is staging with increasing frequency. Mr. Bushs aides like them because the president is much better in an informal setting, especially one where he can get his message across, conversation-style, without pesky reporters asking the questions.
Mr. Bushs message Monday was the economy The worst thing we could do is run up taxes, he said and his looming fight with Congress over the budget. Youre fixing to see what we call a fiscal showdown in Washington, he said, renewing his threat to veto spending bills he does not like.
About 300 people attended the session, for which the local chamber of commerce and the Arkansas Republican Party distributed tickets. The chambers president, Raymond Burns, said he had hoped to draw an audience that represented a diversity of businesses, not a diversity of political points of view, and that had people who are respectful.
They were. Outside the hall, after lunch at a barbecue restaurant, Mr. Bush and his motorcade passed a few onlookers carrying impeachment now signs and antiwar signs. Inside the hall, the war in Iraq came up only when Mr. Bush talked about it himself.
Instead, he fielded questions on such matters as the possibility of government grants for private preschools (Probably not, he replied) and a bill to raise the retirement age for pilots (he confessed he had not heard of it).
The kicker came from a girl who asked when he thought there would be a girl president from the Republican Party.
You took my line, the president replied, apparently thinking for a moment that he was being asked about Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York. I think there will a lady will be president, you know, and shell be a Republican.
