`I will not yield. I will not rest.'
George W. Bush finds his presidential footing on a most unfamiliar terrain
Even his personal regimen suggests a new seriousness, as if he has started training for the biggest test of his life. He is maintaining a low-fat diet and jogs on a treadmill in the East Wing every afternoon. Sometimes he runs on the track that snakes around the South Lawn in midafternoon with Secret Service agents following at a discreet distance, which some aides see as a gesture of defiance to would-be terrorists. He uses these exercise periods to clear his head and ponder major policy choices. Last week, after one run, he returned to announce he wanted aides to schedule Thursday's prime-time address to Congress.
And clearly, he is now working weekends. His meeting with senior advisers at Camp David on September 15 was particularly sobering and intense. Aides describe it as a "war council," complete with charts and maps of Afghanistan and the surrounding region. Bush mostly abandoned his usual informality, calling Powell "Mr. Secretary" instead of Colin, and referring to Donald Rumsfeld of Defense as "Mr. Secretary" instead of "Rummy." He declared that fighting terrorism would become the central goal of his presidency. Five days later, the rookie commander in chief made that clear to the world.
advertisement
