George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography - Get a Free Blog

eminiscent overall of the pre-1860 tacit understanding of Democrats and Whigs to sweep
sectionalism and slavery under the rug. One result of this conspiracy of the incumbents to
ignore the real world was the "unhappy duality that the United States and Russia are both
weakening empires in haphazard retreat from their post-1945 bipolar dominance."
Phillips's conclusion was that while reality might begin to force a change in the "political
agenda" by 1990, it was more likely that a shift would occur in 1992 when an aroused
electorate, smarting from decades of decline in standards of living and economic
aspirations, might "hand out surprising political rewards." "Honesty's day is coming,"
summed up Phillips, with the clear implication that George Bush would not be a
beneficiary of the new day.
Similar themes were developed in the Bonesmen's own Time Magazine towards the end
of the month in coverage entitled "Is Government Dead?," which featured a cover picture
of George Washington shedding a big tear and a blurb warning that "Unwilling to lead,
politicians are letting America slip into paralysis." [fn 21] Inside, the Washington regime
was stigmatized as "the can't do government," with an analysis concluding that "abroad
and at home, more and more problems and opportunities are going unmet. Under the
shadow of a massive federal defecit that neither political party is willing to confront, a
kind of neurosis of accepted limits has taken hold from one end of Pennsylvania Avenue
to the other." Time discovered that Bush and the Congress were "conspiring to hide" $96
billion of a $206 billion defecit through various strategems, while the bill for the S&L
bailout had levitated upwards to $300 billion. Time held up to ridicule the "paltry $115
million" Bush had offered as economic aide to Poland during his visit there during the
summer. Grave responsibility for the growing malaise was assigned by Time to Bush:
"Leadership is generally left to the President. Yet George Bush seems to have as much
trouble as ever with the 'vision thing.' Handcuffed by his simplistic 'read my lips'
campaign rhetoric against a tax increase as well as by his cautious personality, Bush too
often appears self-satisfied and reactive." Time went on to indict Bush for malfeasance or
nonfeasance in several areas: "His long-term goals, beyond hoping for a 'kinder, gentler'
nation, have been lost in a miasma of public relations stunts. The President's recent
'education summit' with the nation's Governors produced some interesting ideas about
national standards but little about how to pay the costs of helping public schools meet
them. His much trumpeted war on drugs was more an underfinanced skirmish. Bush told
voters last year that he is an environmentalist, but the most significant clean-air proposals
put forth this year--stringent new standards on automobile emissions-- were adapted from
California's strict limits for the 1990's."
"Abroad, Bush tends to turn Teddy Roosevelt's famous dictum on its head by speaking
loudly and carrying a small stick, " was Time's unkindest cut of all for a president who
had placed the racist Rough Rider's portrait in the Oval Office, replacing the likeness of
"Silent Cal" Coolidge that had adorned the premises during the Reagan years. It was a
barb to make George wince when he read it.
Bush, Baker, and Brady were thus confronted with some clear signals of an ugly mood of
discontent on the part of key establishment financier circles inside their own traditional
base. These groups were demanding more austerity, more primitive accumulation against