Former President Bill Clinton was holding court in a hallway at the soul-deadening United Nations complex in Manhattan on Tuesday when his Secret Service agents started to stir. Another Secret Service detail was coming down the elevator, accompanying his successor.

"Look who's here!" President George W. Bush called out merrily. The William J. Clinton foundation is based in New York, and No. 42 is taking over a Sheraton this week for the second annual edition of his Clinton Global Initiative, which aims to change the world by focusing the attention of 50 heads of state, a smattering of celebrities and other leaders on energy and climate change, global health, poverty alleviation, and mitigating religious and ethnic conflict. First Lady Laura Bush helps him kick off the three-day gathering Wednesday, an invitation that came partly in reciprocation for asking him to speak last year at the Texas Book Festival, which she founded.

So Clinton had a few things on his mind but he roared a friendly greeting to No. 43. The President was dashing out of a luncheon early and heading back to his hotel for a meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who was hitching a ride in the White House motorcade.

"Have you met Talabani?" Bush asked Clinton, using a casual shorthand that might be startling if you weren't used to the President's gregarious approach to personal diplomacy. The discouraging news about Iraq continues, including the statement by Gen. John Abizaid, who oversees the U.S. Central Command, at breakfast with defense reporters on Tuesday that the number of American soldiers in-country – now up to 140,000 -- is unlikely to go down before next spring.

But at least for an hour, the President got to bask in adulation from Talabani, who saluted him before cameras as "the hero of liberation of Iraq." Talabani went on to say his people "very much appreciate the sacrifice of brave American army, those who gave their life to liberate our country from the worst kind of dictatorship." Bush had introduced him to reporters by saying: "History will judge you kindly, Mr. President, when they look back and realize that under your leadership a new democracy began to flourish in the heart of the Middle East, called Iraq."

In keeping with White House custom, they were appearing before a pair of Iraqi flags and a pair of U.S. flags, meeting cameras after the non-public part of the meeting, which included about eight delegation members and translators on each side. Aides later revealed that Bush and Talabani had a brief one-on-one as well.

Meghan O'Sullivan, Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan, told reporters later that the two had begun talking through an Arabic interpreter. "But I'd say about 20 minutes into the meeting, Talabani sort of leaned forward in his seat, and the President kind of leaned forward in his seat, and they just started talking in English," O'Sullivan recalled. "I think they were feeling that the pace of their exchange and what they wanted to say was being slowed down by the translation."

O'Sullivan was then asked about a statement the President had made during his availability with Talabani. "I spoke today at the United Nations, and in my speech I spoke directly to the people of Iraq," he said. " … I want them to know we appreciate their courage. And I want them to know that the United States of America stands with them, so long as the government continues to make the tough choices necessary for peace to prevail."

Reporters perked up their ears when they heard the "so long as" part. Olivier Knox of Agence France-Presse drew laughter from the press corps when he told O'Sullivan that "sounds like conditional love to me."

"That's something that has been in a lot of the President's comments," O'Sullivan replied, suggesting this was not new news, but also not disabusing him of his interpretation. "And I think it reflects the reality that the Iraqis have a lot of difficult decisions to do, these are hard decision to make, and that we need to both encourage and urge them to take on these decisions. … We look at the security situation and recognize that part of this has a security solution, but a security solution won't be the whole solution. It's got to be a political one, as well, it has to be an economic one, as well."

Jim Rutenberg of The New York Times followed up by asking if there is a "kind of if/then … that if they don't rise to the challenge, the U.S. will be less inclined to continue helping?"

"There was no 'if/then' in the conversation that happened today," O'Sullivan responded. "I don't think there was anything threatening about it. It was constructive." The President was headed back to Washington in late morning after a meeting with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

The President is standing face to face with nbc's Matt Lauer by the
immaculate oak desk in the Oval Office, jabbing emphatically toward
the Today anchorman's chest and insisting, "My job is to protect this
country, Matt. And it gets second-guessed all the time by people who
don't live in the United States." Lauer has interviewed Bush several
times, and they have a convivial relationship, bonding about golf and
bikes during breaks in the taping. But at the moment, Lauer is
pressing the President on the legality of the cia's secret detention
program for accused terrorists. Lauer holds his ground on the big rug
as the Commander in Chief edges forward, encroaching on his space to
the point that Lauer finally puts a hand on Bush's forearm to prevent
a collision. When the cameras are turned off, according to a witness,
Lauer tells the President, "Whoa! I thought you were coming after me
there." Aides to both men laugh. The President lightens too, but
adds, "I feel really strongly about this subject."

Friends and staff members have maintained that Bush has been a Steady
Eddie through the nearly ceaseless storms since his re-election,
confident that history will treat him right and disinclined to sweat
the day's headlines or chatter. But as he stares down one last
campaign, the President suddenly seems to be all adrenaline and
testosterone. It shows in his frenetic schedule and in his assertive
choice of words but perhaps most especially in his body language as
he tries to win over midterm voters by looking and sounding
commanding--he's practically shaking voters by their lapels.

With the press, the President has been brimming over with restless
energy. Rich Lowry of National Review, who was in a group of
conservatives ushered onto the Oval Office couches and found the
President to be "utterly self-assured," says the President nearly
leaped out of his chair when he made some points. Lowry wrote that
Bush untwisted what looked like a paper clip as he talked, "then
twisted it around his finger until it was in a little bow." During a
Rose Garden press conference, the President thrilled photographers
with so many two-handed gestures--now up high, now out wide--that
their motor drives could barely keep up.

During a day of chats just before the fifth anniversary of 9/11,
abc's Charles Gibson asked the President whether the nation's
security would be harmed if Democrats carried the House this fall.
"In my mind," Bush said, stabbing the air word by word with his
pointer finger, "the Republican Party and its members are much better
suited to defending this country." Then the two of them jumped into
the armored Caddy. Bush leaned deeply against the Presidential Seal
in the middle of the backseat as he handicapped the '06 races.

It was revealing that when Bush eulogized former Texas Governor Ann
Richards last week, he saluted not just the ability of his home
state's legendary political characters to "talk Texan" but also their
physical presence--"people larger than life, people that could fill
the stage." The President has been on just about every imaginable
stage lately. He went to Capitol Hill; gave a prime-time address;
held the Rose Garden news conference; invited an anchorman into his
limo, an editorialist onto Air Force One and a columnist into the
Oval; held an off-the-record session for conservative radio hosts;
and sat down chummily with a clutch of conservative opinion writers
who had favored the war in Iraq but now think more troops are needed.
That was all in nine days. He's so determined to be everywhere that
he even did a White House interview with cbs's Katie Couric, despite
his rough history with the network and the view among many Republican
operatives that she's too liberal. It was a reserved, wintry
performance. When they were about to take a break and Couric joked
that he had a country to run, he offered, "I've got more than one
thing to do on a regular basis, on a daily basis." But this time he
did not jab his finger.