The Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan wrote a piece about former President George H.W. Bush crying when making remarks as his son Jeb left office as Florida Governor. Her last paragraphs she writes of anguished wartime Presidents and says it genuinely seems as if GWB is not anguished:
But George W. Bush seems, in the day to day, the same as he was. It is part of the Bush conundrum–a supernal serenity or a confidence born of cluelessness? You decide. Where you stand on the war will likely determine your answer. But I’ll tell you, I wonder about it and do not understand it, either what it is or what it means. I’d ask someone in the White House, but they’re still stuck in Rote Talking Point Land: The president of course has moments of weariness but is sustained by his knowledge of the ultimate rightness of his course . . .
If he suffers, they might tell us; it would make him seem more normal, which is always a heartening thing to see in a president.
But maybe there is no suffering.
Maybe he outsources suffering. Maybe he leaves it to his father.
UPDATE COMMENT: Not to do spin for Peggy Noonan, but her final comment is more of a rhetorical device than something said seriously. Bush’s strongest supporters believe he is “resolute.” His critics paint him as unfeeling. But he has wept when he’s met with military families, etc. The questions are whether he is willing to fully grasp what the bulk of experts feel is the gravity of the situation, cooly evaluate policy options, accurately analyze the U.S. national interest, and then weigh advancing the U.S. national interest with the human cost. Resolution is admirable; blind faith and hubris are not. What’s driving Bush’s decisions is often what lurks in the background on both sides.
For another view see Shakespeare’s Sister.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.