Presidents' Day: George W. Bush

(I thought I’d post one of the more fun renditions of GWB--pre-nosejob. Most here know that I like the guy.)

Obviously, posting about a sitting president is the easiest thing to do, since his many of his deeds are in progress.

I’d probably get a case of information overload were I to search commentary regarding President Bush’s actions and policies, so, in lieu of that, I’ll make this one relatively short. Judge for yourselves whether it’s sweet or not.

The latest GWB buzz on the internet—outside of his “charm offensive” in Europe; most specifically, his visit to President Jacque Chirac’s France and his catigation of Russian President Vladimir Putin—is about the Doug Wead tapes.

As George W. Bush was first moving onto the national political stage, he often turned for advice to an old friend who secretly taped some of their private conversations, creating a rare record of the future president as a politician and a personality.

In the last several weeks, that friend, Doug Wead, an author and former aide to Mr. Bush's father, disclosed the tapes' existence to a reporter and played about a dozen of them.

Leaving aside the ethical issues of secretly taping anyone--yes, Monica Lewinsky, too--much less someone who is a friend, we find out that President Bush is WYSIWYG kind of guy.

About his personal faith:

"I am going to say that I've accepted Christ into my life. And that's a true statement."

About personal substance abuse:

"I wouldn't answer the marijuana questions. You know why? Because I don't want some little kid doing what I tried."

BTW, I know very few people between forty and seventy that haven’t tried the Mary Jane. (I’m one of those that hasn’t, however….and unless GWB and Jacques were blazing one up yesterday, I’d say that it’s moot point.)

Probably most surprising to many on the left, about homosexuals:

[Wead] said [then Governor Bush] told [prominent evangelist James] Robison: "Look, James, I got to tell you two things right off the bat. One, I'm not going to kick gays, because I'm a sinner. How can I differentiate sin?"

Later, he [GWB] read aloud an aide's report from a convention of the Christian Coalition, a conservative political group: "This crowd uses gays as the enemy. It's hard to distinguish between fear of the homosexual political agenda and fear of homosexuality, however."

Those who don’t know anything about Christianity, misinterpret it or go by their long-ago remembrances of what’s said in the Bible, fail to understand this type of stance by true Christians. I suspect that’s what the cries of “hypocrisy” regarding the Gannon situation are about.

About Vice-President Al Gore:

Mr. Bush could hardly contain his disdain for Mr. Gore, his Democratic opponent, at one point calling him "pathologically a liar." His confidence in the moral purpose of his campaign to usher in "a responsibility era" never wavered, but he acknowledged that winning might require hard jabs. "I may have to get a little rough for a while," he told Mr. Wead, "but that is what the old man had to do with Dukakis, remember?"

From Doug Wead:

Why disclose the tapes? "I just felt that the historical point I was making trumped a personal relationship," Mr. Wead said.

Well, at least he understands the possible consequences of his actions.