"In Texas, the keys to Bush's governing style have been personal relationships, bipartisanship, a willingness to compromise and a determined effort to set the political agenda, even while ceding to legislators unusual freedom to fill in the details.

"With this simultaneously intimate and detached approach, Bush has enjoyed great success at moving his priorities through a state legislature where power is narrowly divided between the two parties--the same precarious environment the next president is likely to face in Congress. In the process, Bush has proven himself not only amiable but flexible: Central to his success has been a willingness--on virtually every major issue--to make substantive compromises to build bipartisan coalitions."

"Besides his tendency to micromanage, Gore would bring to the Oval Office a penetrating intellect, a steely discipline, an insatiable appetite for preparedness and an uncanny ability to stay on script.

"But unless the vice president learns to control those tendencies better, they well could land him in trouble, as they have in the past. He reacted awkwardly on a trip to Beijing, for example, when Chinese hosts surprised him with a champagne toast."

"Gore says the budget shortfall is caused by a $1.7 billion tax cut that Gov. Bush sought in the last Legislature. But that falsely assumes the Legislature would have appropriated the money for Medicaid and prisons if there had been no tax cut.

"The Legislature appropriated what it thought the programs would need. Given the Legislature's biennial sessions and two-year budget cycle, such shortfalls due to unexpected expenses are common and in times of economic growth are cured with relatively painless adjustments."