The Charm Offensive



March 3, 2001


BROOKE GLADSTONE: From WNYC in New York this is NPR's On the Media. I'm Brook Gladstone.

BOB GARFIELD: And I'm Bob Garfield. In some ways this was the first real week of the Bush presidency -the week when he stepped out from behind the curtain and laid his policies before the Congress and the country. New York Times White House reporter Frank Bruni wrote that he navigated that juncture with a steady voice that betrayed few if any traces of nervousness.

BROOK GLADSTONE:Reporters complained during the campaign that candidate Bush was too sheltered by his aides-- too unavailable to the press. The aforementioned Frank Bruni joins us now on the line. Mr. Bruni how about President Bush -- is he more accessible?

FRANK BRUNI: Since he's been in the White House, access has been extraordinarily limited. His public appearances have been, you know, assiduously staged-- and you know it was a month before he held a news conference.

BROOK GLADSTONE:Let me ask you an odd question here -- is access all it's cracked up to be? I know it makes the job a lot easier for reporters but does it make for better information to the news consumer? I mean if he's out there giving interviews he can put his own spin on things, and quotes are good, but the real information is in the analysis of the impact of his policies anyway!

FRANK BRUNI: Yeah, well I think access is -- I mean I think you touched upon something important; access is in a sense over-rated because if we're doing our jobs well, there should be a, a heavy dose of outside commentary, of perpetrators, of analysis that has nothing to do with simply repeating the words that come out if his mouth. On the other hand, to the extent that I understand George W. Bush and, and have any sort of sense of what he's like, that comes from access -- in hearing what he chose to talk about, how he talked about it I learned a whole lot about him as a person that I hope informs any number of stories and has nothing to do with simply repeating the words out of his mouth.

BROOK GLADSTONE:Mm-hm. But after he gave the tax cut speech you said it marked a turning point in his "charm offensive" from the grace period to the uncertain contentious work of getting his policies passed, and actually in an article you wrote after his first press conference you again referred to the press being on the receiving end of his "charm offensive." Do you find the charm offensive -- offensive?

FRANK BRUNI: [LAUGHS] No, I personally don't, but it only goes so far -- whether it's directed at the media, whether it's directed at people on Capitol Hill, there is a moment at which everybody's self interest or convictions are what they are, and those aren't going to necessarily be moved by the fact that one finds the person trying to persuade them a pleasant, nice person.

BROOK GLADSTONE:Absolutely. I'm just curious about the choice of the phrase -- charm offensive as a phrase is a lot more charged than some alternative phrases you could have gone with. Why does charm offensive rather than diplomatic or politically adept best describe what Bush is doing?

FRANK BRUNI: To say that it best describes it would flatter myself, and I [LAUGHS] wouldn't do that, and I'm also not the only one who's used it --it's sort of-- [BOTH SPEAK AT ONCE]

BROOK GLADSTONE: Oh, no! It's been used all around the world! [BOTH SPEAK AT ONCE]

FRANK BRUNI:Part of it, part of it is a, is a, is a term that's just gotten some currency. But I actually think it is a good term. If you take the glimpses you've had of, of Bush meeting members of Congress, a lot of what he's doing is not just having substantive discussions with them, is not just a sort of high level of diplomacy. A lot of it is simply, you know, calling them by nicknames, asking them about their districts -- I guess it is diplomacy, but it's so colloquial in nature; it's so folksy and I think by intention so unloaded that it really amounts to an onslaught of charm.

BROOK GLADSTONE: Does he have a nickname for you yet?

FRANK BRUNI: I think he first called me Frankie Boy-- [LAUGHTER] and then I became-- Pancho or Panchito.

BROOK GLADSTONE:Ho boy! Let's talk about "Bushisms" for a moment. Do the mangled-syntax stories say anything beyond the fact that he messes up his words and maybe he does it a lot?

FRANK BRUNI: Yeah. I think they say something else as well. One of the most important roles for a president is as a communicator, and I suspect that most Americans care less about some of his deficiencies as com--as communicator than those of us who listen to him all the time, but I think it is legitimate to point out when he has problems with that, you know, because that could relate to his ability to inspire confidence in people, to bring them around to his point of view, all of which has a lot to do with whether he gets his agenda passed.

BROOK GLADSTONE: I wonder whether or not his mangled syntax hurts his confidence with the press more than with anybody else.

FRANK BRUNI:I think the public probably doesn't care enormously about the problems he has with the language which aren't as, as rampant as, as I think sometimes comes across. He's got a real goofy streak to him which I don't think he tries too hard to disguise because I think he sees it, and I think his aides see it, as something that helps him connect with-- with a lot of Americans in terms of, in terms of him coming across as unpretentious and folksy. I think our job as reporters is simply to lay it out there, and if people don't care about it -- great. That's democracy. If they care about it, great! That's democracy. We're not necessarily trying to get people to turn off on him or to look down on that --we're just saying here's a part of who he is, you know, and then readers can decide whether that's important or not.

BROOK GLADSTONE: Well, thank you very much, Pancho!

FRANK BRUNI: [LAUGHS] You're very welcome.

BROOK GLADSTONE: Frank Bruni is a White House correspondent for the New York Times.