Burnishing an Image at the USA Corral By Warren Vieth Times Staff Writer
Mon Aug 29, 7:55 AM ET
CRAWFORD, Texas — President Bush calls his Prairie Chapel Ranch "a slice of heaven," a special place where he can ride his mountain bike, fish his man-made pond and clear brush to his heart's content.
But is it really a ranch?
Here's a clue: The Secret Service agents now outnumber the cows.
Bush's summer vacation at the 1,583-acre spread, which ends Friday after close to five weeks, allows him not only to relax, but to remind the nation that he's a Cowboy President. It's a tradition started by Teddy Roosevelt, and followed by Lyndon B. Johnson and Ronald Reagan, that casts the chief executive as a plain-talking, outdoors-loving leader.
The president's supporters say that's the real Bush, and they say he would be spending time at the property he bought in 1999 even if he had not run for president a year later. Still, they acknowledge that Bush's image benefits from his time in Crawford.
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