Bush 'cocky,' but sensitive to Mexicans, Fox writes

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Source: Houston Chronicle

Former leader offers a mixed bag of anecdotes about U.S. president

ANTIGUA, GUATEMALA — President Bush and Vicente Fox were diplomatic allies and close personal friends before the Mexican leader left office last year, but Fox takes some jabs at Bush in a new autobiography, calling him "the cockiest guy I have ever met in my life" and a "windshield cowboy" afraid to ride a powerful horse.

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But Fox seemed less impressed by Bush's cowboy bona fides. Bush, whom Fox calls "my friend the windshield cowboy," demurred when Fox offered him a ride on "a big palomino" during a visit to Mexico after both men had been elected president. "A horse lover can always tell when others don't share our passion," Fox writes.

When Bush was running for president, consultant Karl Rove called Allyn, then a Fox adviser, hoping to avoid a repeat of the embarrassment over Bush's failure to name the presidents of several countries in a campaign trail pop quiz.

"It's Vee-cente, not Vin-cente, right?" Rove asked.

Not long afterward, Fox found the legal fight over the 2000 U.S. election "ironic."

"At our request the United States had sent election monitors to protect the balloting process in Mexico," Fox says. "But where they might have been more useful that year was in Florida."

Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/world/5146971.html