But for all her trepidation, Laura Bush has emerged as a self-assured campaigner. She has shilled for her husband on her own in two dozen states, and she often delivers her stump speech without notes. Privately, she is an invaluable sounding board for Bush. Last Easter, while his parents were visiting his ranch in Crawford, Texas, Bush got hung up on the wording of a statement he thought might be too harsh. Instead of bouncing it off his dad, who was sitting right there, he told his staff: “Read it to Laura. See what she thinks.” He also relied on her judgment during the vice presidential search. While aides appraised the contestants’ political mettle, Laura sized them up as people. “I’m not George’s adviser,” she said, a bit tartly. “I’m his wife. I don’t advise him about policy, but we do talk issues–and personalities.”
Bush pokes fun at the idea that Laura Bush has any Hillaryesque role in his campaign. Last week he teased a NEWSWEEK reporter that his wife was helping him fine-tune a Medicare proposal. “Hey, Laura, will you work out those prescription costs?” he joked. “Oh, yeah,” she threw back at him with a mischievous smile. Within the hyperactive Bush clan, Laura is the eye of the storm–understated and unflappable, her husband’s balance wheel. On the campaign trail, her mere presence seems to soothe George W, who says, “It’s comfortable to know she’s there.” Her father-in-law says Laura is “steady as she goes,” and the whole family clearly relishes the fact that Laura has the wit to bring her husband gently down to earth. “She laughs at George,” Barbara Bush says approvingly. (“George thought a bibliography was the life story of the guy who wrote the Bible,” Laura once joked.) “When George says something that’s over the top, the quick response from Laura is, ‘Bushie, you know that’s not true!’ " says brother-in-law Jeb Bush. “She is his check and balance.”
She also is quietly tough. When a newspaper reporter recently asked if she disagreed with her husband on the death penalty, she bristled: “If I differ with my husband, I’m not going to tell you about it!” And when a NEWSWEEK reporter learned her daughter Barbara’s SAT score, Laura Bush personally called to ask that the score, which was impressive, remain private. “Barbara would be so embarrassed,” she said firmly. After the convention, Mrs. Bush will pack her twin daughters off to college, then hit the campaign full time. If the Bush camp blunders from here, it won’t be because Laura Bush tripped over her tongue.
