Regardless of your partisan stance, it was hard not to love former president George W. Bush Tuesday night at a special Tate Lecture Series presentation. I haven’t laughed this hard since the pandemic stole our lives, or at least since a decent dose of Saturday Night Live!
Which reminds me: The President said he and Laura took Lorne Michaels to dinner when he visited Dallas. They discussed W’s superb control of the English language, i.e. “Bushisms,” and argued over who “misunderestimated.” This drew me to Jacob Weisberg: no one can despise someone who regrets that, because of the rising cost of malpractice insurance, “[t]oo many OB/GYNs aren’t able to practice their love with women all across the country.”
It helps his case that Bush, like Yogi Berra, is in on the joke. This was clear from the first White House correspondents’ dinner, in March 2001, when the new president read from the first collection of Bushisms, which he described as like Mao’s “little red book,” only not in Chinese. “Now ladies and gentlemen,” he said, “you have to admit that in my sentences I go where no man has gone before.” Of course, he bumbled his speech, claiming that he’d invented the term misunderstanding. He meant to say “misunderestimated.” Being able to laugh at yourself is a rare quality in a leader. It’s one thing George W. Bush can do that Bill Clinton couldn’t.
He said Laura reminded him, when he told the press “we’ll get Bin Laden dead or alive,” that people in Paris would hear that. That’s okay, he told her: so will the people in Midland.
Which is what makes him so loveable. No press: we were asked not to use cell phones for photos, recordings, or note-taking, which I interpreted as no tweets. Later the President said that we as a nation were in trouble, too, back in 1968 when he graduated from college, with race riots, college firebombs, and more. But the difference today — a big difference — was we didn’t have social media where people can whip up and pass misinformation so rapidly, so effectively.
(So bear with me, this report is from memory several hours ago!)
As I sat there and laughed, I was so grateful to have had this experience in Dallas. Count our lucky stars this man, this couple, who lived and led through so much headline-breaking, history-making American life, are with us and active here in Dallas and Texas.
He started right off: SMU called and asked, Mr. President, do you believe in free speech? Why of course I do, he said. Great, they said: then will you give us a free speech?
While the former President said he believed bad-mouthing his successors was in poor form, several subtle quips were dropped: being humble is a great attribute for a president; you surround yourself with the smartest people you can find and then you listen to them. The way we exited Afghanistan is abysmal; you don’t negotiate with the Taliban.
The program promoted his latest book on immigration—- and said by God we need to change our immigration laws and quit villainizing immigrants — which was handed to every Tate season holder gratis, courtesy of President Bush.
He is sharp as a tack.
And quick! He remembered dates, years, no grasping for thought, other than his usual word jumbling when he got excited. He was full of passion, too. In fact, I thought he was going to jump from his chair when he mentioned Afghanistan: if Americans had been told the mission in Afghanistan was to save women and girls, he said, I think they would have felt much differently.
The Taliban are awful, terrible people — he was blunt. As are the North Koreans and their concentration camps — there are more human rights violations in North Korea than anywhere in the world, he said. One of the characters in his book, an immigrant he profiles, escaped from a North Korean concentration camp to China, where there are apparently many underground religious havens.
As for Vladmir Putin: he said that Europe has made a grave mistake depending on Russia for natural gas because now Putin has Europe by the neck.
He told the story of Putin coming to the White House and meeting the First Dog, Barney. How can we ever forget Barney and his holiday tour? Well, seems Vladmir Putin wasn’t friendly to Barney — the president said “he dissed him,” ignored him, and Barney wasn’t friendly to Putin — he read Putin’s body language clearly.
A few years later when visiting Russia, the President and Mrs. Bush were invited to Putin’s home and he asked, do you want to meet my dog?
Sure, said President Bush.
In jumped a huge, strong, muscular Bulgarian shepherd Karakachan dog. The former president had forgotten the Barney incident, but this brought it back.
The Soviet leader said, “See how much bigger and stronger he is than your Barney?”
“That said so much about Putin,” says the former president, who could hardly wait to tell Condi Rice about the incident. What a huge chip Vladmir Putin holds on his shoulder, said President Bush, that Putin would brag that his dog was bigger!
He may have been bigger and stronger, said the former President, but Barney was light years smarter than Putin’s pup.
