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| Thought Leaders: Legacy |
Behind the Throne
Mark K. Updegrove
05/01/2007
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Last autumn, I received a
handwritten letter from George W. Bush on White House stationery. "I’m not ready
to take the stage for my 2nd Act yet," he scrawled in his distinctive slanted
cursive. "After a two-year sprint, I will take the lessons of your book to
heart."
I had just sent the president a copy of my book Second Acts: Presidential Lives and Legacies After
the White House. I was flattered to hear
from him, although I know from my research that the president is interested in
almost anything that is written about his family. What struck me most about the
note, however, was the date: November 8, 2006. Bush had written it the day after
the midterm elections (a "thumpin’" in his words) and the day he fired the
chief architect of the Iraq War, his secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld.
 While Bush may not have been prepared for the curtain to close
on his White House tenure, he clearly knew that things would have to change. And
it was no surprise that the person to whom he turned was his father. Like almost
any relationship between a powerful father and an ambitious son, that between
Bushes 41 and 43 is complicated. They are "closer than the public realizes,"
Bush the father pointedly told me a year ago when I interviewed him, a comment
perhaps meant to diffuse widespread speculation that the two were divided over
the war.
The father has publicly held back any in-depth commentary on
his son’s presidency, understanding that "any perceived nuance" between himself
and the president will be exploited by the media and will "complicate [the
president’s] life." Privately, however, the two talk at least several times a
week in calls initiated by the president. Bush 41 abstains from reaching out by
phone to his son; he doesn’t want "to be the father calling all the time." While
the content of those conversations remains a mystery—family members, friends and
staffers give father and son their space—Bush 41 told me, "We don’t dwell on
points of difference." In fact, by all indications, he is first and foremost a
supportive father.
Most family businesses experience a difficult adjustment when
the older generation hands the reigns of power to the youngsters. The elders
have to decide whether they should bestow advice or sit back and let the
children make their own mistakes—and whether or not to run interference if the
kids seem headed for disaster. I suspect that Henry Ford would have intervened
if his son, Edsel, had let Ford Motor Company run amok, and Henry Luce would
have taken some drastic steps if Henry II had let his Time publishing empire
falter. The presidency is not a hereditary right the way family business succession can be, but Bush the father has, of course, given his son a sort of
presidential blueprint when it comes to appointing advisors. Otherwise, although
Bush 43 made it to the White House in large part by trading in on the family
brand name, he has decidedly gone his own way as president.
Still, Bush 41 appears to be genuinely proud of his son. |
Most recently, Bush 41 seems to have exerted any sway he may
have over this son by exposing him to outside influences in the form of
nonideologues and family loyalists who might help salvage the situation in Iraq.
Exit Rumsfeld, onetime rival to Bush 41; enter Bob Gates, former CIA chief under
the old man and former head of the (George H.W.) Bush School of Government at
Texas A&M. Goodbye to the unchecked influence of Dick Cheney, Bush 41’s
secretary of defense to whom he is no longer close; hello to the recommendations
of the Iraq Study Group, cochaired by longtime Bush family friend and
consigliere Jim Baker. But, of course, the president rejected the group’s
advice, enlisting Gates instead to escalate the war in one last shot at
achieving some measure of victory. The father provides direction, but the son
forges his own path.
Still, Bush 41 appears to be genuinely proud of his son. I
asked him if he thought their two presidential legacies would be intertwined in
history. "I hope so," he said. He could have distanced his own administration
from his son’s, pointing out how different the era of Bush 43 is from his own,
but he didn’t. George W. Bush has less than two years until his second act
begins, ample time to shore up his sinking presidency. What happens—and how it
ultimately reflects the Bush legacy—is anyone’s guess. But one thing is certain:
His father stands ready to help when he calls.
Mark K. Updegrove is the author of Second Acts: Presidential Lives and Legacies After
the White House.
Illustration by John Cuneo.
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