Bush shows 'compassionate' side

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- President Bush, on a campaign to win over California and assert moderate credentials, reprised his "compassionate conservative" theme Tuesday and spoke of his concern for Americans left behind in the economic rebound.

Bush wrapped up two days -- and $4.5 million in fund raising -- in California, trying to help conservative Bill Simon's uphill challenge to Democratic Gov. Gray Davis.

The president also tended to his own political image as he courted the California voters who rejected him in 2000 by more than 1 million ballots.

In his nearly 18 months in office, Bush has bolstered his conservative record by championing tax cuts, increases in defense spending, business-friendly regulations and an energy policy palatable to oil companies. He also rolled back some environmental regulations and choked off funds to family-planning groups allied with abortion rights.

Laying groundwork

But as Bush looks to the November elections that will decide control of Congress and lays the groundwork for a 2004 re-election campaign, what he presented to Californians on Tuesday was another side of his agenda.

"America doesn't need more big government," Bush said inside a Silicon Valley-area convention hall. "Yet we cannot have an indifferent government either. We are a generous and caring people. We don't believe in a sink-or-swim society. The policies of our government must heed the universal call of all faiths to love a neighbor as we would want to be loved ourselves." He condemned bigotry and hatred, making a comment about France, where several synagogues have been recently attacked and where ultra-rightist Jean-Marie Le Pen, accused of anti-Semitic statements, seeks to unseat President Jacques Chirac in Sunday's national election.

"We reject the ancient evil of anti-Semitism, whether it is practiced by the killers of Daniel Pearl, or by those who burn synagogues in France," Bush said.

Pearl is the Wall Street Journal reporter murdered in Pakistan.

Bush spoke the word "compassion" 16 times in the 37-minute speech, his most formal and comprehensive of recent weeks.

The speech gathered Bush's entire agenda -- foreign policy, free trade, health care, education, welfare overhaul and more -- under a single theme.

"I call my philosophy and approach compassionate conservatism," he said. "It is compassionate to actively help our fellow citizens in need. It is conservative to insist on responsibility and on results."

He tailored his remarks at Parkside Hall, and later at the fund raiser, to emphasize his concern for workers here who were hit especially hard by the recession and tumult in the technology sector.

The recession is over, Bush said, "yet this vital region reminds us that a lot of work remains to be done."

"I understand people are hurting here in the Silicon Valley. ... So long as people can't find work, I'm worried," he said.

This trip, on the heels of a long weekend at his Texas ranch, was as much about helping Simon as testing the California waters before the time comes to decide on making a serious bid for the state in 2004.