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Subject: LETTER FROM THE GULF COAST<Bush Casts in Warm Waters for Snook - and Solitude<
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 92 08:24:29 EST
Message-ID: <20.1992Nov15.082429@AmeriCast.com>

LETTER FROM THE GULF COAST<Bush Casts in Warm Waters for Snook -
and Solitude< BOCA GRANDE, Fla.>

"We miss you already," says a childlike, finger-painted sign in
the window of a real estate office in this resort village. Mes-
sage: We care.

In baggy Bermuda shorts and a baseball cap, carrying a fishing
pole, President Bush blends right in with the other comfortably
rumpled, affluent old folks who< populate this Gulf Coast barrier
island.

Well, almost. The giddy gangs of sightseers who stake out Fifth
and Bayou to catch a glimpse of "Poppy" can pick him out as the
one whose "caddies" are armed. Another giveaway is the team of
divers who check out every inch of the skiff docked across from
the Pink Elephant restaurant before Bush climbs in and fires up
the Mercury outboard.

Almost two weeks after his election loss to Democrat Bill Clin-
ton, the president still has the pomp. But the circumstance is
fading fast.

With his news-free, five-day fishing and golfing retreat, the re-
jected leader has officially begun the mystical psychic descent -
presumed to be painful and dizzying - from enormous power to
something else. Though he is fishing for snook, solitude - not
fish - is the prize.

There is no press release to tell us that, like in Hemingway's
"The Old Man and the Sea," he is coming to grips not only with
fish but with his own inner self. Beaten, like the fisherman in
the fable, but not defeated?

But in the fleeting public glimpses of Bush here, he has appeared
subdued and even, some veteran Bush watchers say, "depressed."

Of course he still has the entourage of about 100 aides and
Secret Service agents. And he will fly home Sunday on Air Force
One.  But for all practical purposes, the plane  has somebody
else's name on it. And the news media corps is only half the
preelection norm.

To ease the chill of rejection, the First Couple chose one of the
country's warmest spots - politically as well as thermally. Two
thirds of the 520 registered voters in this precinct turned out
Nov. 3, and they voted 2 to 1 for the Republican ticket.

The village of Boca Grande, about 45 miles south of Sarasota, is
the social core of a seven-mile-long barrier island rimmed with
white sand beaches, long a low-profile lure for escape-minded
celebrities. Natives tool around the narrow, banyan-shaded lanes
in golf carts instead of cars.  Major-league sport fishermen come
here for the tarpon - but tarpon season is over.

Access to the island is by a causeway with a tollgate, where all
visitors must pay $3.20 to enter.

The First Couple is staying at the Spanish-style villa of du Pont
family member Bayard Sharp, a Bush friend who seems to own much
of the island.

This trip, Bush has enjoyed more uninterrupted leisure than at
any time since he took office, aides say.

"I haven't seen the president since we got off the helicopter,
and it's great!" press secretary Marlin Fitzwater said late Fri-
day, looking relaxed in a wide-brim straw hat.

To emphasize the point, the White House has quartered the travel-
ing news media at a Days Inn a 25-minute drive inland and a $3.20
toll away from the president's playground.

The Days Inn press room, with a dozen phones, is silent and
deserted except for the buzzing of a tropical insect. With no
better access to Bush than the tourists have, journalists are
forced (horrors!) to hang out on the beach. Over dinner, they
reminisce about vacations in the days when their beepers went off
at 5:30 a.m. for a 6 a.m.  presidential jog, followed by golf
followed by fishing. That was when Bush seemed to relish "face
time," schmoozing between putts about world events.  If Bush has
trouble adjusting, he is fortunate to live in an irritable era
when there are enough one-term or rejected ex-presidents to make
up a support group. Bush can look to Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy
Carter - who were turned out of office by voters - and Richard M.
Nixon, who resigned under a cloud in the Watergate scandal.< -
Kathy Sawyer>02:19 11-15C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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