Bush v Bush: an oedipal battle between men of rigid beliefs

[CatWoman]

ntense rivalry between father and his wayward son has given way to mutual concern about the family legacy

THE White House was in no mood this week to discuss President Bush’s psychological state after an election defeat that he himself had described as “a thumping”.

Tony Snow, Mr Bush’s press secretary, said: “The President is not a guy who — he doesn’t get on the couch — what he does is , ‘What it is, is what it is’ ”.

But if the President ever did lie down on a therapist’s couch, any psychoanalyst worth the name would begin by asking about his relationship with his father, George H. W. Bush. The 41st US President is a figure that his son, George W. Bush, the 43rd President, has variously ignored, clung to, sought the approval of and competed with. Some commentators have long since taken to describing an oedipal struggle between them.

“You want to go mano a mano right here?” Bush Jr demanded after being told off by his father for drink-driving in the Seventies, after an incident when he had dragged a neighbour’s rubbish down the street behind his car.

His brother, Jeb (always regarded by his parents as the brighter one and more likely to succeed in politics) tried to defuse the row, telling his father that George had got into Harvard Business School. “Oh, I’m not going,” said the wayward son, “I just wanted to let you know I could get into it .”

When he first ran for Congress (unsuccessfully) he would pull out his birth certificate at campaign appearances to prove his full name was not the same as his dad’s.

But Bush Sr has always been there when times are bad. And the father’s inner circle from his White House years now appears to be riding to the rescue of the son. The appointment this week of Robert Gates as Defence Secretary, together with the looming report from James Baker’s commission, are together supposed to be signalling a new direction for the Iraq war.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2448811,00.html

[Greeby]

1. Wish he would take his daddy issues

To a place where people won't end up dying as a result

[acmavm]

2. Things have to be bad when it's almost with a collective sigh

of relief the country looks to an old thug like Poopy to straighten out blivet for the good of the country.

How could we ever have come to this??

[CatWoman]

3. Chimpolini has me actually admiring the old coot

[aquart]

4. Don't.

There is nothing to admire about that man.

[CatWoman]

6. I mean, compared to Chimpy

Poppy APPEARS reasonable and educated.

[Cleita]

5. Which is why the French learned a long time ago, not to allow

the country to fall into the hands of the idiot son. We need that lesson. Actually, we need to end this closet aristocracy that is ruling and ruining our country. I would really like us to move the capital elsewhere, out of foggy bottom, and allow it to become the museum it should be.