In the five weeks since Vice-President Al Gore first conceded the US presidential election and 30 minutes later withdrew it, George W. Bush has been under huge emotional and political pressures. But the Texas governor has shown that he can weather them.
He was criticised for appearing to be presumptuous by holding Oval Office-style meetings with advisers in the Governor's Mansion as the battle over recounts raged in Florida. In subsequent weeks, he retired for long periods to his ranch and worked more discreetly preparing for the transition to the presidency he believed he had won.
Critics said that for a future president he was covering up inexperience by over-dependence on advisers from his father's presidency. An especially large workload was thrown on his running mate, the former defence secretary, Mr Dick Cheney, who even suffered a mild heart attack but was back at work within a few days.
It was an extremely difficult period for Mr Bush, as for Mr Gore, as the outcome of the presidency see-sawed through various recounts and court hearings all the way up to the Supreme Court. Mr Bush also had to cope with the fact that in spite of his super-optimism he lost the popular vote to Mr Gore by over 300,000 votes. He now becomes the first president to win the election and lose the popular vote in over 100 years.
With hindsight, the over-confidence was a serious tactical mistake. Another incident in the closing days of the campaign also raised questions about Mr Bush's judgment. The revelation that he had been arrested in 1976 for drunk driving did not throw him off his stride, at least in public, but even supporters questioned why he had not got this potential time-bomb safely out of the way before embarking on the road to the White House.
The fact that Mr Bush was able to get over this last-minute jolt and keep his cool was an indication of how he had matured through the campaign. Another was how he came through the ordeal of the three debates with Mr Gore, which were expected to demolish him, and then visibly gained confidence on the campaign trail.
It was not always like this for George W. Bush, who was leading a playboy-style existence at a time when Al Gore was embarked on a political career he hoped would lead him to the White House.
Mr Bush had not actively sought to be the Republican candidate until 1997, but the fact that he had his father's name obviously helped, and his achievement in beating a popular Democratic incumbent to become Governor of Texas had attracted national attention among Republicans. When Mr Bush was re-elected in Texas 1998 by a large margin, showing he could attract half of the Hispanic votes, he was firmly launched on the presidential trail.
But he has always had a sunny, optimistic outlook, according to those who have known him over his 54 years.
Early life was in the oil town of Midland, Texas, where his father was trying to make it in the oil business. When he was 15, his father decided it was time for him to follow in his own footsteps and enter Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts - perhaps the most exclusive prep school in the country. He was not a diligent student and emerged with average grades.
He may not have had his father's patrician bearing and high-achiever drive inherited from the renowned Senator Prescott Bush of Connecticut pedigree, but the young George had the gift of mixing easily and making strong friendships.
Then came Yale, where the father had excelled. For the son, Yale in the 1960s was a time of much partying and beer drinking but only "gentleman's grades" and no sporting achievements. As a student there were two run-ins with the police, one for stealing a Christmas wreath and another during a brawl at Princeton.
After Yale, he was liable to be drafted to fight in Vietnam but instead ended up flying F-102s in the Texas National Air Guard, prompting suggestions that his father had pulled strings to get his son into what was seen as an elite unit. But Mr Bush now says he regrets he did not go to Vietnam as Mr Gore did.
After some aimless years in Houston, there was relief in the family when he was accepted by the Harvard Business School, where he was awarded a master's degree. But the drinking continued and it was during a Labour Day holiday in 1976, when driving back from a bar to the family compound at Kennebunkport, Maine, that he was arrested for drunk driving and fined $150, and had his licence suspended.
After Harvard, he returned to Midland, Texas. Again it was a period of partying and dating while dabbling in the oil business, until his boyhood friend, Joe O'Neill, introduced him to Laura Welch, a pretty Methodist librarian and schoolteacher. He was smitten and they married after a six-month engagement. He suddenly decided to run for a Congressional seat in west Texas but was beaten by his more experienced opponent. He was 32 and politics was beginning to get into his blood.
The social drinking continued until he was 40, when he decided to give it up. Laura had expressed her unhappiness with his drinking and there was also a spiritual awakening which he attributes to a frank discussion with the Rev Billy Graham, a friend of the family.
After helping his father to get elected president in 1988, he returned to Texas where he switched from oil to basketball and raised $600,000 for a minority stake in the Texas Rangers. When the team was sold in 1998, he found himself $15 million richer and financially independent for the first time.
His record as a Texas governor has been scrutinised by friend and foe to see what it reveals about the man behind the back-slapping bonhomie. In Texas the governor has in practice less executive power than his deputy but Mr Bush boasts about how he has worked across party lines with Democrats in the state.
He is a fervent upholder of the death penalty and has presided over nearly 140 executions in six years without having any doubts that justice was done in each case. His power in this area is limited to granting a temporary 30-day reprieve to allow more time to defence lawyers but the parole board, which has the power to confirm the death penalty or commute the sentence, is appointed by the governor and in this case clearly reflects his views.
Mr Bush's record in areas other than education, where he has carried out welcome reforms, is deeply conservative and marked by consideration for business interests.
However, he wears his conservatism lightly and tries to leaven it with Christian precepts. This approach was encapsulated into his campaign slogan as "compassionate conservatism".
When he began his campaign for the White House, the joking, quirky Bush was a puzzle to many political commentators who wondered what he really believed in behind the slogans. The next four years in a spotlight unrelentingly on the occupant of the White House should reveal more of the real George W. Bush.