WASHINGTON:

The first hint that President George W. Bush might be detached from the nation's economic woes was in February, when he conceded that he had not heard about predictions of $4-a-gallon gasoline.

Then Bush went to Wall Street to warn against "massive government intervention in the housing markets," two days before his administration helped broker the takeover of the investment bank Bear Stearns.

Now Bush is in Eastern Europe, one of eight foreign trips he is taking this year. As he delivered his farewell address to NATO on Wednesday, Senate Democrats and Republicans were scrambling to produce a bill to help struggling homeowners, the kind of government intervention Bush had cautioned against.

For a man who came into office as America's first MBA president, Bush has sometimes seemed invisible during the housing and credit crunch. As the economy eclipses Iraq as the top issue on most voters' minds, even some Republican allies of the president say Bush is being eclipsed and is in danger of looking out of touch.

"He's over there arguing about who should get into NATO, and the American people are focused on what's in their pocketbooks," said Kenneth Duberstein, who was chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan in Reagan's second term. "He has talked about the economy, but it is not viewed as being a satisfactory response. Unfortunately, the lasting image is of not knowing of $4-a-gallon gas."

With the nation riveted by the race to succeed him, it is growing increasingly difficult for Bush to command the national stage. In addition to being upstaged by the candidates, Bush has ceded his bully pulpit on the economy to other Washington figures, including congressional leaders, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve.

While Bush was in Romania on Wednesday, Bernanke was on Capitol Hill delivering a far more pessimistic vision of the economy than the president - who has said the country faces "a rough patch" - has allowed.

When the White House announced its plan to overhaul the financial regulatory system, it was Paulson, not Bush, who did the talking. And the Paulson plan, by the secretary's own account, is not aimed at offering immediate assistance to homeowners facing foreclosure.

"I think for the most part the administration is doing the right thing in addressing the economic problems we have," said Representative Peter King, Republican of New York. "But I think tactically it would be better if the president himself was more out front, rather than leaving it so much to Paulson. When there is a perceived national crisis, it's important for the president to be the point man."

Still, because the public has little faith in Bush, it may be tough for him to be the point man on the economy, even with a Harvard business degree. Just 25 percent of the public approves of the way Bush is handling the economy, a figure even lower than his overall job approval rating, according to a CBS News poll in mid-March.

So it is no wonder, some Republicans say, that Bush is letting others do the talking.

"The good news for Bush is he's got Paulson, who's got some real credibility on these issues," said John Feehery, a Republican strategist. "Paulson is doing a pretty good job of looking like he's doing something."

Other presidents have tried, with varying degrees of success, to use their platforms in tough economic times. Franklin D. Roosevelt famously used his fireside chats to calm a nation traumatized by the Great Depression. But Gerald Ford was ridiculed for his WIN buttons (Whip Inflation Now), as was Jimmy Carter for his call to set winter thermostats at 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 Celsius).

Bush, by contrast, has been loath to sound downbeat. He has yet to use the word recession publicly, for instance. Two months ago, he drew praise for bringing together Republicans and Democrats on an economic stimulus package including rebates for taxpayers. (The checks will go out in May.)

But he has resisted calls from Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House of Representatives, to hold a top-level bipartisan economic meeting to address the growing mortgage crisis.

And now, with Congress trying to come together around some kind of plan, James Thurber, director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University, says Bush should take the lead.

"He has the chance to show that he's bipartisan and he can be above it all and solve things," Thurber said. "The American people want a leader right now."

White House officials fiercely reject the contention that Bush is not showing leadership, or is out of touch. They say he has been unfairly treated for his $4-a-gallon gasoline comment. The average price was nowhere near $4 when Bush was asked the question, though the predictions were all over the news. (The national average is $3.29 a gallon, or 87 cents a liter, the Energy Department says.)

The White House officials also note that in August, Bush announced a package of proposals intended to help low-income homeowners that the Democratic Congress has yet to adopt fully.

When the president visited a debt-counseling center on Friday, in Freehold, New Jersey, it did not generate major headlines.

"He has to get back in the public conversation again," said Duberstein, the former Reagan chief of staff.

"All the conversation going on now is Obama, Clinton and McCain, and people are not talking about 'What's George Bush thinking? What's George Bush going to do?' "