Eleanor Clift: How George W. Bush has ruined the family franchise

[seafan]

Fathers and Sons: How George W. Bush has ruined the family franchise

By Eleanor Clift
Dec. 8, 2006

Dec. 8, 2006 - On the eve of a report that repudiates his son’s leadership, former president George H.W. Bush broke down crying when he recalled how his other son, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, lost an election a dozen years ago and then came back to serve two successful terms. The elder Bush has always been a softie, but this display of emotion was so over the top that it had to be about something other than Jeb’s long-ago loss.

snip

The former president was reflecting on how well Jeb handled defeat in 1994 when he lost his composure. “He didn’t whine about it,” he said, putting a handkerchief to his face in an effort to stifle his sobbing.
That election turned out to be pivotal because it disrupted the plan Papa Bush had for his sons, which may be why he was crying, and why the country cries with him. The family’s grand design had the No. 2 son, Jeb, by far the brighter and more responsible, ascend to the presidency while George, the partying frat-boy type, settled for second best in Texas. The plan went awry when Jeb, contrary to conventional wisdom, lost in Florida, and George unexpectedly defeated Ann Richards in Texas. With the favored heir on the sidelines, the family calculus shifted. They’d go for the presidency with the son that won and not the one they wished had won.

The son who was wrongly launched has made such a mess of things that he has ruined the family franchise. Without getting too Oedipal, it’s fair to say that so many mistakes George W. Bush made are the result of his need to distinguish himself from his father and show that he’s smarter and tougher. His need to outdo his father and at the same time vindicate his father’s failure to get re-elected makes for a complicated stew of emotions.

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The Iraq Study Group, co-chaired by Baker, pulls no punches in calling Bush’s policies a failure. It’s a statement of the obvious, but when you have a collection of Washington wise men, plus retired Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor (perhaps doing penance for her vote that put Bush in the White House during the disputed 2000 race), it’s the equivalent of last rites for Bush’s Iraq policy, along with his presidency. It’s not a plan for victory because that doesn’t exist except in Bush’s fantasy.

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Bush was asked during the campaign in 2000 what would happen if he lost. He said he’d go back to Texas, watch a lot of baseball and have a great life with Laura and the girls. He’s an accidental president, a man who was vaulted into a job he wasn’t prepared for, and who treated war like a lark. Bush’s father observed between sobs in his Florida speech, “A true measure of a man is how you handle victory and how you handle defeat.” He was talking about Jeb, but surely it’s his first-born who triggers the tears.

Governor Chiles, wherever you are tonight, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

[Judi Lynn]

Now it suddenly makes sense. I'd never heard about their earlier

plans for succession to the Presidency. Very interesting.

You bet, we owe Governor Chiles a GREAT debt. If we think THIS is bad, it's hard to imagine how bad things would have gotten had their Plan A succeeded.

[Judi Lynn]

1. Sorry, double post. n/t

[Raster]

2. Hmm, does Ms. Clift read DU? Quite a few of us were saying the same thing

just a few days ago. Ask not for whom Poppy cries for, it will only piss you off!!!
:kick:THREE!!!

[freethought]

3. I'm not totally convinced that * has managed to do that entirely

Let's face a simple fact, in the U.S. the voters have pretty short memories. With the right blend of PR and spin tactics Lil' Jebbie could still end up in the White House. W may have disrupted the family franchise but I'll have to wait and see if he's totally destroyed it.

[yurbud]

4. W did for Bushes what Jeffrey Dahmer did for his family's butcher shop...

for some reason, the meat just didn't look right to people anymore.

[Joe Bacon]

5. I fully expect Jeb to be the 2008 GOP nominee.

I said it all along, and Republicans are DUMB ENOUGH to do it.