ASHINGTON - The first Bush presidency ended with a spirit-crushing defeat, and the second one will begin after an excruciating, 36-day wait for the election's results. George W. Bush was sustained both times by family, friends, and faith, and all three are likely to be the emblems of the new Bush White House.
Yesterday, Bush got up early to phone his parents and share his good news. If the former president and first lady felt pride or vindication in their son's apparent victory, their son didn't share it. They said, ''thanks for the wake-up call,'' he told reporters.
People close to the Texas governor say he is emerging from this unprecedented fight resilient and fortified because he drew on the resources of a strong extended family, his steady and sensitive wife, Laura, and a conviction that God's will would be done.
''It is absolutely in times like these that the strong bonds of family, faith, and friends get you through,'' said Ron Kaufman, a Massachusetts Republican who has been close to the Bushes for many years. ''And the Bushes have an inordinate amount of all three.''
Bush comes to Washington with this advantage: The White House is familiar territory, the home of his parents for four years. And if he and his wife's six years in the Texas governor's mansion are any guide, the Bushes will combine a respect for official duties with the low-key and casual lifestyle of a couple who surround themselves with children, parents, siblings, and old friends.
In particular, and what will serve the president-elect well now, Kaufman said, is ''a very healthy sense of self'' that Bush inherited from his father, who Kaufman remembers as the most resilient member of the Bush circle after he lost his re-election bid in 1992.
That same sense of self was evident on the night of Nov. 7, when Bush was declared the winner, took a concession call from Vice President Al Gore, and then had the prize slip away for a while.
''The most telling comment after election night came from Barbara Bush, who said, `I was the mother of a president for 30 minutes, and it felt great,''' said Tom Rath, a Concord, N.H., lawyer and Republican activist. ''I don't think George W. ever allowed himself to take property of it until it was done. He was the one person who could have walked away from it.''
Nancy Weiss, who has known Bush since 1978, when he ran unsuccessfully for Congress, said it is not in George or Laura Bush's nature or religion to harbor bitterness about the trauma they have been through.
''They really believe there is some sort of divine order guiding this process, and the outcome was out of their hands,'' said Weiss, who lives in Lubbock and talks often to Laura Bush. ''George and Laura have absolutely been at peace. They didn't watch all the TV and torture their minds the way I did.''
Weiss said the Bushes coped with the stress in the same way they will handle the stress of the presidency: he by jogging and working out; she by reading and visiting with a circle of old friends.
Those friends have often heard Laura Bush speak of how painful her father-in-law's 1992 loss was, and it surely contributed to her initial reluctance to have her husband seek the same office. Once the decision was made, however, the former teacher and librarian made winning the White House her top priority: She fully committed herself to the campaign and her pivotal role of keeping her husband centered, calm, and comfortable.
Laura Bush also brought sound judgment, good people skills, and a broad intellect to her husband's campaign, and from the earliest decision-making through the post-election roller coaster ride, she was on the inside, offering direction, support, and advice.
Friends expect her to play the same role as first lady, though without the public-policy edge and polarizing personality of her predecessor, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
''Laura has all these strong qualities - there is an equanimity and strength about her that is very helpful to her husband,'' said Mary Margaret Farabee of Austin, who chairs the Texas Book Festival, an annual event the Texas first lady created and that raises $1 million a year for public libraries. ''She is very much a wife and mother, but she is also a leader who people love to be around.''
Farabee said Laura Bush's grace, warmth, and ''quiet charisma'' will serve her well as first lady, and that she will be a good role model for women because she is accomplished and active in promoting literacy, her main interest.
''She is not hesitant to express her opinions, and she makes great strides without shaking up the world,'' Farabee said.
People who know the Bushes expect them to entertain graciously and, because Laura Bush has been something of a patron of the arts, with an eclectic mix of guests. But when they aren't guided by official protocol, the Bushes' tastes run more to barbeque and blue jeans.
''They are very warm and informal people,'' said Adair Margo, a friend and San Antonio artist who remembers how teenagers were constantly hanging out at the governor's mansion in Austin, wearing baggy pants and baseball caps on backwards. ''It was like Grand Central Station.''
The White House won't have quite the commotion because the Bushes' twin daughters are now in college. Jenna is a freshman at the University of Texas, and Barbara is in her first year at Yale University.
But the Bushes' desire to keep their daughters out of the media spotlight is likely to mirror the Clintons' obsession with their daughter Chelsea's privacy. Jenna and Barbara attended the GOP convention last summer in Philadelphia but played no public role in their father's presidential campaign or its aftermath.
The empty nest will free the Bushes for foreign travel, and friends think the president-elect is gregarious enough to enjoy the adventure. His father, a former UN ambassador and CIA director, had been an intrepid traveler during his and President Reagan's administrations, and Laura Bush occasionally takes bird-watching vacations on her own. George W. has not used his passport much as Texas governor.
Nobody thinks Bush, who enjoys an occasional nap and is early-to-bed, will keep his father's frenetic presidential pace. The elder Bush was renowed for playing ''speed golf'' and racing his cigarette boat in the waters off Kennebunkport, Maine. The president-elect's favorite sport is baseball, but now he will have to drive to Baltimore for the nearest professional game.
New England will not be the next president's home away from home. The vacation White House will be the Bushes' ranch in Crawford, Texas, where the couple has spent much of the past five weeks. Named Prairie Chapel, the ranch says a lot about the new first family, friends say: It's not pretentious, it's welcoming to friends and the big Texas sky, and its ''herd'' amounts to a couple of cats and a dog named Spot.
