hen George the first was running for president, I took a T-shirt off the back of a Republican.
It was an extra large, 100 percent cotton shirt that the Republicans for Choice had printed in 1992 right after Barbara Bush said the GOP should drop the prolife plank from its platform. It read, ''Finally, Barbara.''
This was the friendly, funny, and frustrated response to the first lady, who had finally acknowledged what everyone knew. While George I was prolife, Barbara was prochoice.
The silver fox is no pussycat. Her wink and nod at moderate Republicans carried a pretty deliberate message of its own. She was offering up a role model of a prochoice, pro-Bush voter.
Well, I don't have the T-shirt anymore, but Mrs. Bush is back, and so is the message. Prochoice, pro-Bush? If Barbara can do it, can you?
I watch her traveling around the country, treated as a beloved Queen Mother for the Prince of Texas and find myself in awe. It's not just the stamina of a 75-year-old who came out of back surgery to campaign for her eldest son. It's her astonishing ability to have it, well, both ways.
The star of an overt campaign for women's votes that carries the banner ''W Stands for Women,'' she demurs: ''I feel funny talking about women's issues. I think we care about the exact same things men do.'' A political doyenne, she snaps at questions about her mother-son political differences: ''I agree with him on 99 percent of things, and soon I'm going to agree on 100 percent if people don't stop bringing up this question.''
Mrs. Bush is so popular that her son promised Letterman he'd put her on Mount Rushmore. But she's on the campaign to reassure women that George II is not really a threat to abortion rights. He's Bar's boy.
Prochoice, pro-Bush? It's amazing to watch George W. duck and weave around the abortion issue. He's learned to wink at prolife voters while nodding at prochoice voters.
Monday, in a series of increasingly meaningless answers to questions about this issue, Bush answered: ''Good people disagree on this issue. There's a good debate on the issue, and that's the American way.''
With Tim Russert the other day, he said, ''There's going to be abortions one way or another.'' Then he added, ''I hope I will be able to work with people to reduce abortion.''
Well, good people do disagree, and, yes, there will be abortions one way or another. But there is a difference between one way - legally - and another - illegally.
And, yes, we all want to ''reduce abortion.'' But some would reduce them by preventing unwanted pregnancies while others would do so by closing clinics and raising hurdles.
Like mother, like son? There's a slogan around this year: ''It's the Supreme Court, stupid.'' That's about as good a way to vote in this campaign as any. A justice here, a ''strict constructionist'' there, and the right to decide will belong to the government, not the woman.
But it's not just the high court at stake. It's the rash of lower-court judges whose nominations have been stalled by a Republican Senate. It's the appointments a president makes - just read the stories about the anti-birth control, antiabortion Texas health commissioner who was just forced to resign - from FDA commissioners to an attorney general who prosecutes clinic violence.
George II talks about wanting to break the gridlock, wanting to ''get things done.'' Which ''things''? Do we really want smooth sailing from a Republican Congress to a Republican White House? It's the legislation a president signs - or vetoes - that would criminalize one abortion procedure with no exceptions for a woman's health.
Remember the first debate when Bush said he couldn't overturn the FDA decision to market the RU-486? Not that he wouldn't, mind you, but that he couldn't? There's a bill to help him out by restricting and regulating the use of that early abortion pill. And Bush would sign it.
George II has a mantra this year about how he trusts the people, not the government. Sometimes I wonder: Does that include female people? Why not trust us?
At one stop on the ''W Stands for Women'' tour, where a sign read, ''Barbara for First Mama,'' Mrs. Bush said that her son ''surrounded himself with strong, wise women.'' It's hinted - another wink, please, and a nod - that Laura, as well as Barbara, believes the abortion decision belongs to the woman.
But this is something we learned the first time around the Bush. After all the wooing, after all the reassurance, it's not the mama but the man who matters. Finally, it's George.
Ellen Goodman's e-mail address is ellengoodman@globe.com.
