Georgey Bushy Agonistes

With a nod toward Gary Wills -- Surprise, surprise. It turns out, upon his "exit strategy," that George Bush is even more unbearable than we could have realized.


Analysis: With odd news conference, Bush offers extraordinary glimpse into presidency
By Ted Anthony, Associated Press National Writer, January 13, 2009

Picture Lincoln, in the throes of the Civil War, suddenly mocking his critics in a nyah-nyah voice. Imagine Theodore Roosevelt, leaving office, lamenting out loud about how hated he was by Standard Oil. Summon an image of FDR cracking wise about his wheelchair and grousing about the nasty things Hitler was saying about him.

Now consider George W. Bush on Monday. He bobbed and weaved and smiled wistfully, quipped about giving up drinking, deployed a mock European accent to kid a reporter, vowed to make his wife coffee. At the same time, he warned about terrorism, bristled at comments that the federal response to Hurricane Katrina was slow and said finding no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq — the rationale for a six-year war — was "a significant disappointment."

"You never escape the presidency," says Bush, who is about to. But before he did, the guy who is the most powerful leader on the planet for one more week had some things to say in what he called "the ultimate exit interview."

The session, televised live, was offered up as a valedictory news conference. But it also proved an extraordinary glimpse behind the psychic curtain and an illuminating window into what we want — and may not want — out of the modern presidency.

Bush was at turns erratic and eloquent, nostalgic and melancholy, gracious and cantankerous, regular guy-ish and resignation-era Nixonian. It all felt strangely intimate and, occasionally, uncomfortable in the manner of seeing a plumber wearing jeans that ride too low.

"He was like a second-semester senior — the grades don't matter anymore," said John Baick, a historian at Western New England College who studies the presidency.

Americans are forever insisting they want a regular Joe in the Oval Office, someone they could go out and grab a beer with. Could it be, though, that in this post-Monicagate era of the celebrity full monty, there are actually some presidential ruminations we can do without? Was George W. Bush, of all people, too intimate on Monday? . . .

~Full article here