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.Seeme immediately. 10The young Bush s role as caretaker did not end with Robin s death.W. s grade school and junior high years were long, isolated ones forhis mother.She had two more boys: Neil in 1955 and Marvin in 1956. This was a period, for me, of long days and short years, she recalled, of diapers and runny noses, earaches, more Little League games thanyou could believe possible, tonsils, and those unscheduled races to thehospital emergency room, Sunday school and church, of hours of urg-ing homework, short chubby arms around your neck and sticky kisses;and experiencing those bumpy moments not many, but a few of feel-ing that I d never, ever be able to have fun again, and coping with thefeeling that George Bush, in his excitement of starting a small companyand traveling around the world, was having a lot of fun. 11 BarbaraBush had episodes of depression, but getting help was not an option inthis transplanted, upper-crust New England household.12 When Barbarahad a miscarriage shortly before W.went to Andover, he was the one todrive her to the hospital and comfort her during the aftermath.Pickingher up the next day, he asked her earnestly: Don t you think we oughtto talk about this before you have more children? 13Thus did George W.Bush, however unconsciously, struggle to fillhis father s shoes as a source of emotional and even physical supportto his mother.14 But there were other, equally salient ways in which hisfather s example both present and absent became burden and inspi-ration.Quite simply, his father in school, sports, military service, poli-tics, family, and life set the standards to which all his children wereheld and held themselves.And none took the role model more seri-ously than the firstborn son.George W.would follow in his father spath for years with dread, with joy, and later with rebellion and anger.Bring It On Reforming Medicare 389That rebellious streak would open space for health policy on W. s OvalOffice desk.15Commissioner of StickballBeing a Bush was tough for George W.Where his father was school-smart, athletic, and focused, modern psychologists might describeGeorge W.Bush as learning-disabled perhaps even hyperactive.Hedid poorly in school.He wasn t a good athlete, but he was kinetic, evenfrenetic.He had skills, but not the kind that traditional educationalinstitutions valued.His mediocre grades undoubtedly caused anxiety, self-doubt, andresentment toward Andover, Yale, and all the New England institu-tions they came to symbolize.As Weissberg puts it, He had to copewith being treated as dumb, without even being a jock. 16 After thatfailing grade in his first English assignment, he worried desperatelythat he was going to get tossed out of Andover and shipped backto Midland in disgrace.17 Today school counselors and developmen-tal psychologists would have been all over young George.He wouldget tutoring in personalized learning techniques.His tests would beuntimed.Therapists would bolster his self-esteem by assuring him(correctly) that dyslexia and hyperactivity are biological problemsthat have nothing to do with native intelligence or ability, and thatthey can be overcome.He might even get dosed with stimulants tohelp him settle in and concentrate during those long, dark, cold NewEngland winters.But these supports were a long way off in the early 1960s, andGeorge W.had to find a different way to be a Bush.Developing atoughness that would later shape his presidency, he used the abili-ties he possessed.He was outgoing, verbal, friendly, humorous, andfun-loving.He had a good memory, especially for names, and he hadalready begun watching how his father, by then cultivating a politicalcareer in the Houston area, could find success in relationships withcrowds.At Andover, he became a cheerleader another way to bepart of the action.He led from the outside: ironically, mockingly.Hisfather had been captain of the Yale baseball team.W.organized a para-athletic program a stickball league of which he became commis-sioner. At Yale, too, he was a different sort of leader.He didn t justjoin a fraternity, he was its president.He was a hellraiser and prank-ster: hard-drinking, partying, cool and sardonic, continually testing390 George W.Bushthe limits.He got himself arrested twice during college: once in NewHaven for lifting a Christmas wreath from a downtown store, anothertime in Princeton as part of a melee following a Princeton Yale foot-ball game.18 He covered his insecurity with brash overconfidence andimpulsiveness.19Clearly, George W.Bush was not buying his father s route tosuccess the tight-lipped, understated, conventional, New England paththat relied on a combination of innate talent and golden connections.But despite W. s overt rebellion, he could not escape the Bush legacyentirely.He confided repeatedly to friends in quiet moments how muchhe admired the elder Bush.20 He was his father s political sidekick, shar-ing GHW s rocky path to and from the Oval Office.Politics broughthim close to a father who had been absent in earlier years.In the pro-cess, W.internalized the Bush family s political ambitions but rebelledpointedly against the elder Bush s methods, styles, and policies.W.was never an offi cial member of this father s entourage [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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