REPORTING FROM ... THE WHITE HOUSE

Shealah Craighead/White House

The Ambassadors of Liberty is not just a fledgling hair-rock band anymore.

George W. Bush's patrician, East Coast, country club roots might suggest that he's a white-shoe sports fan. But everyone knows the president is more of a baseball guy (unless, of course, you consider brush clearing as sport). That's why it was so strange that roughly one third of the American Olympic athletes invited to the White House Monday were from the United States Olympic Sailing Team.

It was a strange day at the White House, with Washington swamped in a cruel and brutal mid-summer swelter. In a historical first, the Bush administration invited 15 of the 600 American Olympians for a Rose Garden visit and a formal dinner. Some softballers, a few cyclists and four members of the United States Sailing Team made the scene.

"There's a 58-year-old sailor, which gives this 62-year-old mountain biker hope that you may need me in Beijing," joked W. One by one, Bush chatted with the athletes, vowing to help keep softball an Olympic sport and voicing interest in taking a test run on the Olympic mountain biking trail in Beijing.

"He's obviously into sports," says Andrew Campbell, a member of the sailing team. "They always host some athletes when they come back if they win, but never before the Games," said Campbell. "And never a send-off like this"

"It was just a recognition," says sailor Sarah Mergenthaler. "I don't think people know how important it was to us. It gave us the right frame of mind to compete."

After some time in the Rose Garden, Bush parted ways with the athletes and stepped into the Oval Office. Minutes later, he popped his head out and waved to the small group to join him as if he had 15 minutes to kill and, well, why not? "It seemed pretty unplanned," Campbell says. "Next thing we were in the Oval Office with him showing us paintings. He was casual, leaning on his desk, chatting up athletes. We didn't have any idea what to expect," he continued. "He was kind of candid, cool and calm. Like any great politician, he makes you feel comfortable. He's got a great persona."

There was no talk of the sputtering economy, the Iraq War, or the fever pitch presidential election. Or of Bush's dismal approval ratings. Except for making a brief comment on America's deep regard for human rights, the president avoided politics. "There are plenty other times for politics to happen," Campbell said. "This wasn't one of them."

Later, the group returned to the White House for a formal dinner in the East Room where Bush impressed the sailing crew. First, he knew about the widely-reported subpar conditions at the Olympic sailing venue in Qingdao, which has tricky currents, light winds, discarded garbage and an unfortunate algae bloom. When sailor Sarah Mergenthaler shook hands with Bush, he laughed and said she had a strong handshake for a girl. Then he plunged into sailing conditions. "So, you ready to go?" he asked her.

After Bush toasted the athletes and tucked into a four-course dinner (pea soup, sea bass, salad and a chocolate desert called The Olympic Torch), the crowd filed out into the Rose Garden for a concert by bluegrass band Seldom Scene. "It was all so surreal," Mergenthaler says. "I couldn't believe it. There were cabinet members and Bush family everywhere. VIPs I didn't know. But it was a down home feel. There were candles everywhere."

Relaxing in the glow of the candlelight, amid banjo twangs and fiddle strikes, Bush was spotted smiling and tapping his feet in time, no doubt counting the days until he's back in Texas.

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