Bush Gears up for November: his father disliked 'the vision thing,' but this President Bush is counting on big ideas to win re-election.

During a moment of irritation in the 1988 campaign, the Republican presidential candidate, Vice President George H.W. Bush, derided "the vision thing," as he called it, describing a leader's ability to set inspiring national goals. The first President Bush went on to become a one-term President with little taste for big schemes.

But 16 years later, as the second President Bush sets in motion his re election campaign, he is embracing not only "the vision thing" but the idea of a very big presidency: big ideas, big costs, big gambles. More than many Presidents, historians say, Bush seems to understand how to use the powers of the office and to see the potential political benefits in taking chances.

Since the New Year, Bush has proposed a sweeping overhaul of the nation's immigration laws. He announced plans for establishing a base on the moon and sending humans to Mars. Those proposals come on the heels of a $400 billion prescription-drag benefit for senior citizens that Bush pushed through Congress. And then there is perhaps the most dramatic big vision of the Bush presidency: the U.S. led effort to bring democracy to Iraq.

"Winston Churchill always said that government should not be engaged in small endeavors," says David R. Gergen, who has worked in four previous White Houses. "It had to be engaged in large endeavors to stir the public's imagination. And Bush gets that, whether by instinct or by reading."

Few doubt that the President's embrace of big ideas is genuine, but the timing of his recent bold proposals also serves a political purpose. With the 2004 presidential race starting, this is magic-show time in Washington: the season when a sitting President can use the powers of his office to lay the groundwork for his re-election campaign.

VOLUNTEERS WITH PALMTOPS

On January 20, Bush used his annual State of the Union address, with its national television audience, to hold him self out as the candidate best able to protect the nation in a post-September 11 world. That strategy, say members of both political parties, could well win Bush a second term. Historically, Americans have never voted a President out of office during the middle of a war.

Presidential aides say that Bush is wholly absorbed by the race, talking daily with Karl Rove, his chief political advisor. By March, when the Democrats may have settled on a nominee, Bush will probably have reached his fund-raising goal of $170 million. His campaign will then become more active.

But Republicans are already organizing. The Bush Cheney campaign headquarters in Arlington, Va., is humming like a model of corporate America. Republicans are developing what they hope will be one of the most aggressive grassroots campaigns in history.

Presidential politics has been dominated for decades by television advertising campaigns. But this year, both parties are increasingly turning their attention back to the business of knocking on doors and turning out the vote.

Democrats build their grassroots campaigns around labor unions, advocacy groups, and Democratic organizations. Bush's team has a more audacious goal: creating a seamless national political machine that infuses existing state and local party operations with new recruits, money, technology, and discipline.

Bush campaign officials say they envision tens of thousands of volunteers, many armed with palmtop computers, fanning out through the country in the weeks leading up to Election Day.

NEIGHBOR TO NEIGHBOR

With memories of the 2000 election and its contested Florida recount still fresh, Republican leaders say they will focus on states that could decide a close election.

At a Republican organizing event in December in Drexel Hill, Pa., about 150 people were asked to sign up five other people as Bush "team leaders" and ask those five to each sign up five more.

"The bottom line is, this campaign is about neighbors talking to neighbors," Michael DuHaime, a 30-year-old regional political director for the campaign, told the crowd. "There are over 9,400 precincts in Pennsylvania, and we will have you organized in every single one."

Job Approval

Presidents' job approval in January
of the year they sought re-election

                   APPROVE    DISAPPROVE    NO OPINION

Jimmy Carter         52%          34            14
1980
Ronald Reagan *      58           32            10
1984
George Bush          48           39            13
1992
Bill Clinton *       47           40            13
1996
George W. Bush       50           45             5
2004

* President who were re-elected

SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES/CBS NEWS POLL

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

* Which do you think is a better campaign strategy--well-designed national TV ads or smaller, localized appeals to voters?

* Do sitting Presidents have advantages over their challengers? If so, what might they be?

TEACHING OBJECTIVES

To help students understand how President Bush plans to spotlight national security concerns in combination with locally focused campaigning to win re-election in November.

CLASSROOM STRATEGIES

BEFORE READING: Write "magic show" on the board. Tell students that the reporter uses the term to describe the presidential campaign process. In this case the President is George W. Bush. The article reveals how he plans to use his power of the office to stir the public's imagination and win votes.

CRITICAL THINKING: Ask students to discuss the President's State of the Union focus on national security. Will fears of terrorism cause voters to stick with the leader they know? What about Bush's other proposals? Are students excited by the prospect of piloted missions to the moon and Mars? Are his role as leader in a time of war, plus his proposals on immigration reform and $400 million prescription drug plan for seniors enough to win re-election?

SLOGAN STRATEGIES: Ask students to imagine that they are speechwriters or workers in the Republican and Democratic campaign headquarters. Their job is to devise six campaign poster slogans, bumper stickers, or planks in the Republican and Democratic party platforms that will--as former presidential adviser David R. Gergen notes--"stir the public's imagination."

Students may need some prompting to get their imaginations stirring. You can nudge them along by writing a list of subjects on the board. Here is a suggested list of public-policy interests: health care, medical research, education, the environment, national defense. (See Web sites, below, for other ideas.)

Have students write a few sentences about each subject in which they present imaginative proposals for the future.

WEB WATCH: For news about the 2004 campaign from the Republican perspective, go to the Republican National Committee at www.mc.org.

For a competing perspective, go to the Web site of the Democratic National Committee at www.democrats.org.

Elisabeth Bumiller is a correspondent in the Washington bureau of The New York Times. With additional reporting by Richard W. Stevenson.