Bush: Humor and handshakes

By Jill Zuckman, Globe Staff, June 16, 1999

Call it the charm offensive.

Texas Governor George W. Bush worked on winning hearts and votes in New Hampshire and Massachusetts yesterday with a roll of the eyes, the lift of an eyebrow, and plenty of irreverent asides.

In Lawrence, at the Community Day Charter School, Bush sat next to 12-year-old Temistocles Devers as teachers explained how they grade and teach their students. Patently bored, Bush leaned over to the little boy, whispering in his ear, which prompted an eruption of clicking camera shutters.

"I'm sorry, I'll try not to move," Bush said mischievously. (Later, Devers said the governor had whispered: "I know there are a lot of pictures, but don't worry.")

Throughout his two-day trip to New England, the front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination was greeted by overflow crowds of exuberant voters. While some were uncommitted and just checking Bush out, almost all were eager to shake his hand, touch his sleeve, tell him their name.

"I've been involved in every campaign since 1964," said New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg, who is coordinating the Bush effort in the first primary state. "I've never seen this kind of energy level."

Bush began his day in Derry as the shift changed at Hadco Corp., a circuit-board manufacturer. Sporting a navy windbreaker with a gold Texas seal, Bush attempted to shake hands with workers who were coming and going.

"Good morning, my name is George Bush, glad to meet you," he said repeatedly as he shook hands.

While most employees wished him luck, asked for an autograph, or snapped a photo of him, a couple seemed nonplussed at finding a presidential candidate outside their workplace at 7:30 a.m.

One worker hurried by, barely able to avoid shaking hands. Bush raised both eyebrows at his 250 media sidekicks and cracked, "Oh well, can't get every vote."

Another man shook hands with Bush, but then asked: "I want to know if you talk about issues or just shake hands."

Bush turned to the television cameras, photographers, and reporters crowding the walkway and joked, "You put him up to that."

Marilyn F. Hoffman of Londonderry waited outside the plant yesterday even though she doesn't work there. "I wanted to see him and meet him in person," she said.

Hoffman, the former director of the Currier Gallery of Art in Manchester, also wanted to ask Bush about funding for the arts. When she got her answer, she issued a homemade press release concluding that Bush "just announced that he would elminate the National Endowment for the Arts as we know it."

However, in a brief interview with The Boston Globe, Bush later said he would not abolish the NEA. He said he wanted to continue federal funding for the arts, but give states a greater say in how the money is spent.

Before heading to Massachusetts, Bush stopped at the Madden Family Restaurant in Derry to visit with breakfast-goers. "Wow! What a start!" proclaimed the sign welcoming Bush to the restaurant.

As the Lone Star State's governor shook hands, he moved around behind the counter and began pouring coffee for the restaurant patrons, shaking hands with his right and pouring with his left.

Bill Otto, a salesman from Derry, said he supports Bush, noting that the front-runner "pours a good cup of coffee."

"He's just like his father," Otto added. "The country needs another one like that."

In Boston, a protest preceded Bush's arrival at a luncheon fund-raiser at the Park Plaza Hotel. Members of Stop Handgun Violence, a Massachusetts gun violence-prevention group, called on Bush "to stop pandering to the National Rifle Association and to support new common sense gun laws."

When told aboard his bus of the demonstration, Bush shrugged his shoulders. "I appreciate we ought to enforce the laws of the land," he said. "We're tough on gun laws in our state."

Since Bush took office in Texas, violent crime has dropped 17 percent, said Karen Hughes, his press secretary. She also said Bush is not a member of the NRA.

If news of the protest bothered him, Bush didn't show it as he went into the Park Plaza Hotel for pasta salad and sandwiches with 600 contributors. Altogether, Governor Paul Cellucci announced, more than $800,000 was raised for Bush's presidential effort -- the most for any Republican fund-raiser ever held in Massachusetts.

Bush thanked Cellucci and said he intended to work hard and to win. Just before he arrived, Bush said, his wife, Laura, gave him some words of advice: "She told me, 'Don't try to be charming, witty, or intelligent; just be yourself.' "