(FORTUNE Magazine) – So far, George Bush is getting consistently high marks for the job he has done as Commander-in-Chief. Says retired Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, now a management consultant: ''Bush's performance has been absolutely A plus.'' The President has focused his enormous energy on the managerial tasks proper to his role: setting goals, providing resources, monitoring progress, making strategic decisions, selling the war, and putting out periodic fires like the wave of false optimism that swept the world when Saddam Hussein seemed to be offering to withdraw from Kuwait. After studying Hussein's extensive conditions and consulting with such top aides as National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, Secretary of State James Baker III, and Defense Secretary Richard Cheney, Bush dismissed the offer as ''a cruel hoax.'' The C-in-C has also effectively delegated the minute-to-minute conduct of the war to his generals. Unlike Lyndon Johnson, who handpicked bombing targets in North Vietnam, or Jimmy Carter, who phoned field lieutenants during the bungled attempt to rescue U.S. hostages in Iran, Bush has not called Field Commander Norman Schwarzkopf once since the war began. If it comes to a bloody ground war, there will be tougher challenges. Bush, a decorated World War II bomber pilot, has grieved publicly for soldiers already lost in combat. But aides say there have been no black moods, just dogged determination born of conviction about the rightness of the war and the ability of the U.S. to win. Says Washington lawyer Stuart Eizenstat, an aide to both Johnson and Carter, who met with the President the day that 11 marines were killed: ''He has a remarkable capacity to see the national interest in a larger light.'' Bush the manager derives much of his calm from the trust he has in Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Colin Powell and other top advisers. As he considered a ground offensive in Iraq, Bush told reporters: ''I don't feel any . . . loneliness at the top. I have very able people to depend on . . . I am not going to second-guess . . . I feel rather calm about it because we have a game plan . . . and we are on target.'' In war as in peace, Bush has avoided potential isolation in the Oval Office with a steady stream of visitors, professional and social. He's met with Congressmen, governors, and heads of state. He calls as many as a dozen world leaders a week and continues to write friends and colleagues. Weekend guests at Camp David have included actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Episcopal Bishop John Allin, House Speaker Tom Foley, Capital Cities/ABC Chief Executive Daniel Burke, and country music star Moe Bandy, who sang ''Americana.'' Says Bush: ''Life goes on.'' Much of the socializing is directed at maintaining popular support for the war. Recently he invited to the White House 45 members of the Committee on Peace and Security in the Gulf, a group of politicians and foreign-policy luminaries, like former arms negotiator Max Kampelman, who support his Gulf policy. Their visit included a stop at the Queen's bedroom where, Bush told them, a scantily clad Winston Churchill paced restlessly during a World War II visit. He has also greeted leaders of the Arab and Jewish communities in the U.S., potential critics of some of his policies. Said Eizenstat: ''This kind of attention helps lock people in if things get worse.'' For the most part, says one top aide, ''Bush's mood is serious, preoccupied. There's not as much banter here. The war hangs over everything.'' But humor has not disappeared altogether from the White House. Bush has been spotted sporting a Saddam Hussein watch.