Letter from Washington
| Author | Andrew Cohen |
| Published date | 01 March 2001 |
| Date | 01 March 2001 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070200105600108 |
| Subject Matter | Comment & Opinion |
ANDREW
COHEN
Letter
from
Washington
EVEN
BEFORE
GEORGE
WALKER
BUSH
was
sworn
in
as
the
forty-third
president
of
the United
States, his
administration
promised
a
sea
change
from
the
noisy,
messy,
melodrama
of
William
Jefferson
Clinton,
a
gifted
but
flawed
steward
whose presidency seemed
to lurch
from
crisis
to
crisis.
In
a
sense,
Bush
had
only
to
be
someone
other
than Clinton.
Woody
Allen
says
that
98
per
cent
of
life
is
simply showing up,
and
that's
all
the
incurious,
untutored
Bush
had
to
do.
Americans
wanted
a
respite
from
the
wasting
cycle
of
allegation
and
recrimination -
a
return
to normal-
cy,
so
to speak -
and
that
is
what
Bush
and
his
buttoned-down
Rotarians
offered.
If
he
threatens
to
be
the
dullest
president
since
Calvin
Coolidge,
he
can
live
with
it.
So,
at
noon
on
that
rain-lashed
day
in January, Bush
pledged
his
loy-
alty
to
country
and constitution. He
delivered
a
respectable
inaugural
address,
appointed
a
respectable
cabinet,
and
unveiled
a
respectable
programme.
Already, they
said,
he
was
exceeding
expectations.
Bush
could
be
thankful
that
he
wasn't
his
father
succeeding
Ronald
Reagan,
or Harry
Truman
succeeding
Franklin
Roosevelt.
Instead,
by
the
grace
of
history,
George
Bush
would
succeed
Bill
Clinton,
bringing
an
end,
as
Republicans
say
it,
to
the
reign
of
a
self-indulgent
baby
boomer,
his
opportunist
wife,
and that
legion
of
jumped
up,
denim-
clad
Ivy
Leaguers
who
regarded
the
president
as
they would
a
prefect.
In
that
contest,
it
wasn't
hard
for
Bush to
look
good.
If
he
wanted
to
return
dignity to
the
office,
he
had
only
to
refuse
to
reveal
his
prefer-
Andrew
Cohen
is
Washington cor-spondentfor
the
Globe
and
Mail
of
Toronto.
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL Winter 2000-2001
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