President's New Life Has an International Focus
WASHINGTON -- President Bush was up around 5:30 a.m. as usual on Tuesday, the two-week anniversary of the terrorist attacks. He walked his dogs Barney and Spot, thumbed through the morning papers and -- unwilling to wait an hour for breakfast with congressional leaders -- ate a bowl of cereal.</br></br>Even in the tumult of these times, it is a point of pride for this control-conscious president to maintain an ordinary schedule: early to bed, early to rise. But as the rest of his day shows, the president and his presidency have been forever changed.</br></br>The president often appears more serious, more stern and more conscious of the image he projects, here and abroad, according to lawmakers and aides who have spent time with him. A unilateralist for much of his first eight months in office, he has found himself relying on numerous foreign leaders, phoning them from the Oval Office in the morning, and from his residence after sundown.</br></br>Remarkably, for a man who came to office unschooled in foreign affairs and with scant experience abroad, Mr. Bush has embraced the foreign-policy imperative and, aides say, shows far less interest in the domestic matters that had preoccupied him up to now. He has winnowed his agenda to "bipartisan-only" legislation. In the conduct of domestic and international affairs, he has formed the kind of alliance with Democrats in Congress that he talked about in his 2000 campaign, but hadn't forged in office.</br></br>"The terrorist attacks impacted him personally [and] impacted his agenda," says Dan Bartlett, a top aide. "His days have changed."