CAMPAIGN FOOTAGE REVEALS BUSH'S CHARM.

Byline: David Kronke TV Critic

FROM TIME to time, I have been accused of allowing a liberal bias to slip into my writing - or, according to the tastes of some readers, to collapse avalanche-like into it.

Fair enough: In the interest of fair play, I'd like to offer a conservative conspiracy theory tonight, the evening of midterm election returns, regarding HBO's decision to present ``Journeys Wwith George,'' a behind-the-scenes documentary about George W. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign (Bush himself suggested the title to filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi).

Bush comes off as so eminently likable in this documentary that HBO - a smart bastion of the elite liberal media - may have feared that viewers might have been predisposed to vote the Republican ticket had they seen this before Election Day. Just a thought.

Pelosi brought a digital handheld camera with her while she was covering the 2000 election as a producer for NBC News. Whether she intended to make some glorified home movies or an extra-credit report or what isn't apparent, but clearly, she captures some inside-baseball stuff about how campaigns are conducted and covered in the media that the average voter is not made privy to in ordinary coverage.

Virtually in passing, she points out a few facts that reporters don't usually include in their campaign stories. For one, those seemingly homemade signs that dot the crowds during whistle-stop rallies are in fact created and doled out by partisan employees. More damningly, reporters have a sort of vested interest in seeing that the candidate they cover does well, because it puts them at the epicenter of an important political movement rather than a failed campaign. (Pelosi, however, doesn't seem to be too critical of this seemingly key point.)

Pelosi and her tiny camera come across as something of a pest - albeit a sprightly, genially suffered one (it's joked by both her colleagues and Bush himself that she's a stalker) - which makes it easy to sympathize with the then-candidate as he puts up with her omnipresence.

We see Bush chuckle ruefully to himself upon encountering Pelosi and her camera (he even snatches her gizmo from her, for which he receives a credit for additional camera work). We see him chat intimately with her about her forlorn love life. And we see him in a disarmingly self-deprecatingly playful mode that we rarely if ever witnessed during the actual campaign.

This is not to suggest that ``The Daily Show's'' Jon Stewart need worry about being upstaged by a wicked Bush wit anytime soon. But we do see Bush as more relaxed, more funny and more flat-out engagingly human than we're used to seeing him during speeches and press conferences. Even Pelosi - an avowed liberal - admits Bush and his political machine treated her more thoughtfully than her own bosses did. (Bush adviser Karl Rove, however, remains beyond redemption here.)

Pelosi's documentary can be pretty selndulgent and skirts vexingly the bigger issues of campaign coverage that it raises. But its glimpse into reporters and their biases - not to mention its winning portrait of our currently embattled commander-in-chief - makes this worth seeing despite its flaws.

JOURNEYS WITH GEORGE - Three stars

What: Home-movie-style documentary by a former NBC news producer on her tour of duty during George W. Bush's presidential campaign.

Where: HBO.

When: 9:30 tonight; also Saturday and Nov. 13, 17, 21.

In a nutshell: Bush comes off as a fun guy in this occasionally interesting, occasionally indulgent behind-the-scenes glimpse at the controversial campaign.

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Photo:

George W. Bush received a camera work credit in ``Journeys With George,'' former NBC News producer Alexandra Pelosi's collection of movies filmed on the 2000 campaign trail.