By Laura Brown

When the U.S. Navy plane was being held in China, Evan Thomas asked a White House staffer where George W. Bush was and learned the president was on the south lawn, pacing off 60 feet, 6 inches, preparing to throw the first pitch at the Milwaukee Brewer’s opening baseball game.

Thomas, assistant managing editor of Newsweek magazine, told the June 5 Morning Forum audience that Bush came across well in this first test of his presidency, because be did not dramatize the situation as it unfolded, and he did not grab the limelight at the homecoming of the plane’s crew.

Thomas characterized Bush as “an A4 president,” content to be on page A4 of the paper, not page one. In some ways, the Washington press corps, exhausted by the Clinton era, has welcomed this, Thomas said.

Assessing the personality and character of President Bush, Thomas used two words - “modesty and arrogance” - saying that Bush comes by both naturally. As Newsweek Washington bureau chief from 1986 to 1996, Thomas observed that George Bush Sr. had both a sense of entitlement, stemming from his family’s wealth and influence, as well as humility, instilled by his formidable mother who told him never to use the word “I.”

Thomas said the current President has this same humility, coupled with a “Texas frat boy swagger.” Noting that Bush is one of the few modern presidents whose ratings have gone up in the first 100 days, Thomas said, “George W. Bush lives off low expectations.”

Looking to the future of the Bush administration, Thomas said that the dynamic between Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, “one of the scariest bureaucrats you will ever meet,” and Secretary of State Colin Powell, “who sucks all the air out of a room,” should be watched closely. Rumsfeld sees the world as a dark and dangerous place, full of enemies, while Powell believes in diplomatic engagement with other countries, Thomas said.

The most influential person in the administration, aside from Vice President Dick Cheney, is Senior Advisor Karl Rove, Thomas said. Rove is charged with maintaining the President’s conservative Republican political base, and the President’s controversial stance on sensitive environmental issues can be traced to Rove’s strategies.

“Rove doesn’t worry about the soccer moms,” Thomas said. “He knows that the big swing vote for Bush was the coal miners and rural middle-aged men, for whom the price of gas is more meaningful than global warming.”

Conceding that the press has been lenient with Bush during the first days of his administration, Thomas said that he “senses knives being sharpened. There was some glee over the Jeffords defection.” However, he said that Bush is determined to remain an outsider and not play the “Washington game,” because the country doesn’t like Washington insiders.

The Morning Forum is a members-only lecture series held at the United Methodist Church of Los Altos. Membership is closed for this year. To get on a waiting list for membership, write to: Morning Forum, P.O. Box 274, Los Altos 94023-0274.