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Under the Influence George W. Bush:
Pragmatic,
The goal of Texas Gov. George W. Bush's advisers in the early days of the campaign was to make him the man to beat. Like Robert Dole in 1996, Bush locked up the lion's share of major endorsements in the Republican Party. His financial apparatus, run by a network of 200 business friends known as the �Pioneers,� raised such a huge war chest in the first three quarters of 1999 that Bush decided to forgo federal matching funds. For many Republicans, coalescing around Bush was a way to vindicate his father's humiliating loss to Bill Clinton eight years earlier.
Bush's aura of inevitability has abated somewhat with the growing popularity of Sen. John McCain of Arizona. Still, despite some setbacks, his campaign team showed in its earliest days a remarkable discipline on issues and message. On the political front, Bush was determined that his campaign would not be a rerun of his father's and refused to surround himself with the former president's political advisers. �I�m not interested in the people who lost my dad's campaign,� he told one friend. Instead, the campaign is in the grip of three loyal Texas operatives who have worked with Bush since his 1994 gubernatorial campaign.
Still, he often turns to many of his father's advisers for his policy prescriptions, including
Condoleeza Rice and Paul Wolfowitz on foreign affairs and Lawrence Lindsey on the economy. Beyond
the �Iron Triangle� and his campaign staff, Bush has assembled a policy team of more than 100 conservative thinkers. Many of them, though, have served in government and are considered pragmatists'current governors, key members of Congress, and former administration appointees. Their goal: to come up with substantive positions on a range of policy issues and overcome the perception that Bush is an intellectual lightweight.
Many of his political and policy mavens have close connections to business, either serving on boards of directors or working as lobbyists. And some of his closest friends represent or work for some of the biggest names in Corporate America. That comes as no surprise. During his long business career, as an oil executive and co-owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team, he has relied on sweetheart deals and family connections with tycoons to build a fortune. As a governor, he's run a pro-business administration, widening his business-friend network and returning favors.
The Iron Triangle
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