EDFORD, N.H. - There were no embarrassing questions for George W. Bush at his press conference yesterday, no pesky queries about whether or when he might have used cocaine.
No, the fifth graders at Peter Woodbury Elementary School let the GOP presidential front-runner off easy -- just as their teachers had hoped they would.
Although he retains a commanding lead in opinion polls, the Texas governor has struggled some in recent weeks, fending off demands that he definitively answer questions about whether he ever used drugs. The candidate stuck to a tight script in his visits with students and supporters here, not deviating from his stump-speech answers, even when the questions were posed in a mock press session of grade-schoolers.
Two teachers, Ginny Toland and Diane Zito, worked to make Bush's visit a pleasant one by screening their students' questions and leading them in a song that glorified Bush's leadership as governor of Texas.
''We listened to all their questions in advance to make sure they were appropriate and wouldn't make our guest uncomfortable,'' Toland said, adding that the students would study all the candidates this semester in order to decide for themselves whom they like best.
The song came in the form of a verse hailing Bush that the students tacked onto a ditty about US presidents. Toland said the students had written the verse using campaign literature sent by the Bush campaign.
''George W. Bush shows leadership as Governor of Texas,'' the students sang with enthusiasm. ''He's improved education and he's lowered the state taxes. This compassionate conservative has made his reputation. All of his great attributes will surely help our nation.''
Democrats, however, expressed concern that the fifth-graders were not learning quite enough about Bush's education record.
''I'd like the opportunity to go back to the school and say to the kids, `Now let me tell you our side about what George W. Bush's education plan is,''' said Kathy Sullivan, chairman of New Hampshire's Democratic party. ''They're not being given an objective view. It's clear to me he's following the radical right line in trying to gut public education in this country.''
Last week, Bush delivered the first of three speeches on education, calling for local control of schools and for federal funding for charter and private schools.
Yesterday, Bush reiterated that message, as well as his belief that schools that fail should be penalized. ''The old adage is that if something is failing you should pour more money into - I don't subscribe to that...If the federal government spends money, there needs to be results.''
Inside the classroom, Bush urged the students to spend more time reading than watching television. ''If you can't read at all, it's going to be hard to realize the American dream,'' he said. ''You learn a lot more by being a good reader.''
Over the summer, the students were assigned to research one past president. Yesterday, they framed their questions in the context of presidential history. Bush repeatedly praised the students for asking such ''fantastic questions.''
''Chester Arthur was not considered an outstanding school student,'' asked one girl. ''Were you?''
Bush laughed heartily and said, ''not particularly.'' He did say he had done well in the subjects he liked, such as history.
''I worked hard, but I wasn't what you'd call a great student,'' he admitted. ''I don't want to admit the subjects I didn't do well in because there are a lot of people writing this down,'' he said in a nod to the television cameras and newspaper reporters at the back of the room.
Not all of Bush's answers were geared to the fifth-grade level. One student who studied Millard Fillmore, the 13th president, said Fillmore was known as a tough negotiator, and he asked if Bush could live up to that reputation.
The governor cited his negotiations with Texas lawmakers to enact tort reform as an example of his skills. He said a good negotiator understands what he is trying to achieve and is ''tough but fair.''
In other campaign developments, the Bush campaign announced that Thomas D. Rath had signed on as an adviser. Rath is a prominent Concord attorney who had led Lamar Alexander's campaign until Alexander dropped out of the race.
In addition, the Dallas Morning News reported yesterday that former Texas House Speaker Ben Barnes has told friends he was asked in the late 1960s by a Houston oilman to help George W. Bush get a spot in the Texas Air National Guard.
Two of those friends, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said in recent interviews that Barnes identified the businessman as Sidney A. Adger, a longtime Bush family acquaintance who died in 1996.
Bush said yesterday that if such a contact occurred it was not needed, and that it would have been without his knowledge or consent, the newspaper reported.
