The President is urging another war, yet he wants us to pity him too, says charles laurence |
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President Bush is a lonely man battling the urge to self-pity, while crying 'a lot' on God's shoulder. He points bitterly to his dog Barney and says: "The guy who said 'If you want a friend in Washington get a dog' knew what he was talking about."
This dismal portrait comes not from an anti-Bush polemicist, but from the man himself as told to a fellow Texan and family friend Robert Draper, whose authorised biography of the President, Dead Certain, is published tomorrow.
Today is Labor Day in the States, the end-of summer public holiday which traditionally marks the start a new political season. Americans will return to work tomorrow with a sense of dread: everywhere the war drums are beating for a campaign against Iran and now this biography offers a glimpse of Bush that seems to confirm many people's worst fears about their Commander in Chief.
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Bush battles the urge to self-pity and leans on his dog Barney for moral support
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Bush agreed to meet Draper, a journalist on Texas Monthly magazine, after being convinced that the book would prove him a 'consequential president' for history and provide 'the raw material' for books to come. He gave Draper six hour-long interviews. They met first in an Oval Office ante-room where Bush ate a low-fat hot-dog and ice-cream for lunch and sniped at an aide that the interview was 'worthless anyway'.
Later Bush warmed-up, chewed unlit cigars, swatted at flies, propped his feet on a table and interjected remarks such as "I want this damn book to be right".
According to extracts published in the New York Times, Bush likes to keep the White House 'relatively light-hearted' and adds: "I can't let my own worries - I try not to wear my worries on my sleeve."
He brushes off suggestions of 'group-think' on Iraq and insists on taking responsibility: "There's only one person who can decide, and that's the President."
He also tells Draper: "I made a decision to lead: one, it makes you unpopular; two it  |
The war of misdirection
Brown keeps the President at arm's length
