13. AMERICA STUMBLES

BUSH Jr. TAKES COMMAND

Bush, Jr. was, like Bill Clinton, born in 1946, and most certainly qualified as a Boomer, political idealism and all.  We already know about his family background, and can safely say that although born of a traditional Connecticut dynasty, he was raised clearly as a Texan, and was most affirmative of that fact.

He not only saw the world as something that needed to be conquered, but also had a tough generation or two to follow – and measure up to in his own development.  And it would always leave the haunting question to Bush, Jr., who would be left to wonder if it was on the basis of his own merits, or on the merits of his father and grandfather, that he was experiencing success in life.  That's one of the truly tough things that comes with being born to enormous social privilege.

He would of course be raised a Christian, but would have that faith tested deeply early on, when at age seven he had to watch his younger sister die of leukemia.  And oddly enough, even his family name could not open the doors for him to study at Houston's prestigious St. John's School.  That was hugely disappointing.  But ironically, he was instead enrolled in the even more prestigious Phillips Academy up East in Andover, Massachusetts.  So, was that God's doing, or was it due to the fact that both his father and grandfather went there as well?

The Bush Family – Houston, Texas, 1964
"W" is seated on the arm of the chair;
his brother Jeb (future Florida Governor) standing in the middle

Interestingly, he rather enjoyed being the Texan amidst the polished up-East aristocrats, playing the "good-old-boy" Texan to the hilt!  It gave him important social standing, which his mediocre grades did not!  He became a leader thereby, and took this social profile along with him when he later (1964) entered Yale University (also a family legacy and certainly responsible for his admission, achieved in spite his poor academic record).  And at Yale he kept up the profile as a smoking, drinking, fraternity boy, popular with the girls in the nearby girls' colleges.  And certainly not because of his grades, he was even admitted to Yale's prestigious Skull and Bones Society (like his father).

However, he never became truly fascinated with the "polished" up-East world, and returned to Texas in 1968 and joined the Texas Air National Guard (family connections opening the way for him into this highly-sought-after unit).[1]  

Then he went through his ten "nomadic years" – as he termed them.  But those years included getting an MBA at Harvard Business School (1975), starting up his own oil business on his return to Texas, and then bringing that era to a wonderful conclusion in meeting, and three months later marrying (1977) a former 7^th grade classmate, Laura Welch.  This began the process of settling him down, especially when in 1982 twin daughters were born.

It was in meeting the traveling evangelist Arthur Blessitt in 1984 – and the following year, Billy Graham – that made Bush's Christianity more than a mere church-going formality.  In his new "born-again" life, he took up Bible and devotional reading and a life of prayer, and ended his drinking and eventually his smoking.  In fact, so immersed in this evangelical world was Bush that, in helping out in his father's presidential campaign (1987), he was assigned the task of developing invaluable liaison work with various American evangelical ministries.

Finally however, he was able (1989) to establish credibility by his own right, investing money from his oil business in the Texas Rangers baseball team, in the process, putting his name out front in Texas public affairs.[2]

Thus in 1994 he took up the challenge of running for public office as Texas governor (he had failed back in 1978 at a run for Congress) against the Democratic Progressivist and incumbent governor, Ann Richards, a daring thing to do.  But it was a big year for the Republicans nationally (thanks to Gingrich) and Bush defeated her soundly, gaining 54.5% of the vote to her 45.9%.

Besides taking a typical Republican stance on such items as cutting taxes, as governor he also presented himself as a "compassionate conservative" (in Boomer-talk, meaning sensitive to the injustices in the world), supporting educational reform, Hispanic community development (he loved to demonstrate his Spanish linguistic abilities), and community action programs through groups set up to work locally on social reform.  And here is where his Christian faith played a big role, when he looked especially to "faith-based" groups to take the lead in developing and administering the local social programs.

He did so well at his job that he was reelected four years later – with an even bigger 69% support in the election, the first person in Texas history to win a back-to-back electoral victory as governor! 

   

Now as his second term was coming to a close, he took up the idea of a run for the U.S. presidency.  It seemed to be a familiar world, and he felt quite confident that he could win the contest.  And what he brought to the field of competing Republican candidates was his own record as a "compassionate conservative" governor, ready to see things run from Washington on much the same basis.

Bush in Concord, New Hampshire signing to be 
a candidate for president – 1999

Eventually the Republican field was thinned down to just Bush versus John McCain, a war hero and Arizona senator.   The campaign against McCain got ugly.  But Bush came out on top in the contest.

Now in taking on his Democratic Party opponent, Al Gore, one of Bush's lines of attack was all the costly and dangerous "nation-building" that the Democrats had involved America in during Clinton's presidency (and – more importantly at the moment – Gore's vice-presidency).[3]

In the end, probably most of the people who went to the polls to vote for Bush did so because he was the Republican candidate and because he was the son of a well-respected former American president.  Otherwise there seemed to be very little differing the two candidates. Both ran as politically experienced "centrists."

Official photograph portrait of U.S. President 
George W. Bush (1946 – )

Bush had appointed a very diverse cabinet, knowingly or unknowingly likely to have conflicting views on strategic issues, especially those concerning foreign affairs.

President Bush and part of his inner team
Vice President Dick Cheney, the President, Secretary of State
Colin Powell  and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld

Chief among the voices that would have a strong impact on the way Bush saw and went after things was actually not an appointee, but his vice president, Dick Cheney.  Cheney had served presidents as far back as 1974, rising to be Ford's very youngish chief of staff.  He then became a congressman (1978-1988), rising to the ranks as Republican minority whip, before being appointed by the elder Bush as his Secretary of Defense.  He then retired to private service in some conservative think tanks before becoming chief executive officer (CEO) of the Halliburton energy giant (1995).  Cheney would serve as something of a sounding board for Bush, Jr., Bush meeting with him privately after cabinet meetings to get Cheney's opinion on matters, something Bush valued greatly.

Then there was Donald Rumsfeld, who had also served on Ford's cabinet (Secretary of Defense) and close Cheney associate since then.  In fact it was on Cheney's advice that Bush, Jr. appointed him as his own Secretary of Defense.  Together, those two would dominate Bush's foreign policy thinking, for better or worse.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld 

True, Bush had a Secretary of State, General Colin Powell, a veteran military advisor as Reagan's National Security Adviser and Bush, Sr's Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. But knowing the military quite well – its capabilities and its limitations, he typically advised a much more cautious approach to foreign policy matters than did the Cheney-Rumsfeld team. 

US Secretary of State Colin Powell

And allying with Powell was Bush's own National Security Advisor, former Stanford University professor and then university provost, Condoleezza Rice.  But the Cheney-Rumsfeld duo did not pay much attention to her, Rumsfeld at times treating her as if she were merely some university grad student offering limited advice on matters.

   
National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice

Then there was George Tenet, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, a carryover from the Clinton Administration (the CIA and its officers were expected to be "non-political").  He too would find himself up against Rumsfeld in taking on the key issue of America's "war on terror."

      

This would be the team that would have to somehow work together to support its president, as he came to face major foreign policy issues that arose after the 11th of September during his first year in office.