As I watch George W. Bush conduct the affairs of state, I can't escape the conclusion that the man's heart is not in it.
Although Bush's critics would suggest his loss for words and deer-in-the-headlights stupors are evidence of deception, or even imbecility, I think a better explanation is that it reveals a man out of his natural element. The words and concepts come hard and unnaturally for him because he is doing a job that he not only has little aptitude for, but limited interest in.
Except for the events of September 11, 2001 and the door they opened for settling the family feud between Saddam Hussein and George Bush the Elder, I doubt George W. would have much personal enthusiasm for mounting an invasion. Family honor, however, is something that he can hang his hat on.
With a vengeance.
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Unlike Bill Clinton, who had boundless horniness for public office, among other things, Bush has to work hard to appear engaged in the administration of government. Consider the frequently replayed video of the Kennebunkport golf course press conference during the president's August vacation. Leaning on his driver, Bush offers what, for a moment anyway, appears to be heartfelt feelings about the tragedy in Israel and the U.S. resolve to ferret out terrorists. Abruptly, he turns on his heel, waggles his club as he approaches the tee, and commands, "Now watch this."
This, I submit, is the real George W. Bush: a little man who can hit the ball a long way and wants everyone to know about it.
By nature, Bush is a simple man with the inclination of a playboy and a drifter. Before entering politics, he had established a reputation as a world-class party animal and had become famous in the saloons and night clubs of New Haven, Houston and Dallas. Acquaintances marveled at his abilities to consume liquor and his vast repertoire of off-color jokes.
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Without benefit of a famous family name, it is doubtful Bush would have wound up in a position of high authority. It is easier to picture him the owner, say, of a putt putt golf course franchise or a college town nightclub. (One can imagine him putting on one heckuva wet T-shirt contest.)
Left to his own devices, it is possible that he could have risen to a leadership role in the community, but no higher, probably, than the presidency of the downtown merchants association.
Although Bush has worked hard to develop a credible public persona for himself, in the end, he can't pull it off. He has gone to great lengths to play up his Texas-ness and to play down his Yankee-ness, an effort, no doubt, to exorcise the "wimp" label hung on his father. At an informal press conference at the ranch in Crawford recently, he appeared duded up in dungarees, cowboy boots and hat, a roll of hog wire in his gloved hand. As a theatre set piece, it was straight out of one those 1950s Cowboy Bob and his Little Buckaroos shows.
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If it were not for the 911 attacks and almost maniacal urgency to collar Saddam Hussein, George W. Bush might be happily on his way to being an amiable, non-descript one-term president.
Instead, Bush is being played skillfully by advisors hell-bent on creating a new world order. The fact that the unfinished business in Iraq has stuck in the Bush family craw for 10 years has provided Dick Cheney, John Ashcroft, Donald Rumsfeld and their confederates the opening they needed to pursue their work. Cheney's recently released military plan that pushes preemptive strikes and the abandonment of international treaties, among other things, is nothing less than an effort to establish a latter-day Pax Romano.
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As George W. pounds the war drums, one can almost see the puppeteer's strings dangling from the rafters. If it were a production that involved only the president it would simply be pathetic. In this case, unfortunately, the whole world is the stage.
David Morrill is a Florida journalist and Northern California native.
By David Morrill
