Destiny And Power - Destiny and Power Part 63
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Destiny and Power Part 63

"GENERALLY SPEAKING" GHWB diary, October 23, 1988.

ARRIVING IN SANTA CLARA Ibid., October 27, 1988.

JIM BAKER WORRIED Ibid., October 28, 1988.

AN ANXIOUS TEAM Ibid., October 29, 1988.

"RED MEAT, OUTLANDISH" Ibid.

THE NIGHT BEFORE Ibid., October 30, 1988.

ON WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, JUST TO BE SAFE Ibid., November 2, 1988.

"IT'S BLURRED AND BLENDED IN" Ibid., November 3, 1988.

"THERE IS AN APPREHENSION" Ibid., November 7, 1988.

"IT'S FITTING" Ibid.

"I DON'T KNOW" Ibid.

BUSH WON CONVINCINGLY Election of 1988, The American Presidency Project, www.presidency.ucsb.edu/showelection.php?year=1988.

ACCORDING TO EXIT POLLS http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/national-exit-polls.html. There is a small discrepancy between The New York Times's figures (Ibid.) and The Washington Post numbers. The Post has Bush winning 55 percent of the white vote and 11 percent of the African American. (WP, November 9, 1988.) THE COUNTRY WAS SPLIT WP, November 9, 1988.

BUSH WON 92 PERCENT Ibid.

DUKAKIS CARRIED 93 PERCENT Ibid.

"THE ADVERTISING IN 1988" Geer, In Defense of Negativity, 36, 132.

MOREOVER, BUSH AND DUKAKIS Ibid., 119.

"IT WAS THE NEWS MEDIA'S COVERAGE" Ibid., 132.

BUSH SPOKE TO REAGAN BPB diary, November 7, 1988.

"WE WENT TO BED" Ibid.

"CAMPAIGNS GO AWAY" GHWB diary, January 24, 1989.

"WE ASK, LORD" BPB diary, November 9, 1988.

A FEW HOURS LATER BUSH MET THE PRESS "The President-Elect's News Conference in Houston," NYT, November 10, 1988.

AROUND THANKSGIVING BB, 252.

"I NEVER LIKED DOGS" Ibid.

"THERE IS THIS FEELING" GHWB diary, January 2 and 9, 1989.

"I'M EXCITED FOR THE FIRST TIME" Ibid., January 4, 1989.

"THERE'S NO SUCH FEELING" Ibid., January 12, 1989.

ON THE PERSONAL FRONT Ibid., January 6, 1989.

"THE BRIEFINGS ON MY RESPONSIBILITIES" Ibid., January 7, 1989.

"I GASP AT THE PRICES" Ibid.

ON THE MONDAY BEFORE Ibid., January 16, 1989.

IN THE STEADILY EMPTYING HOUSE Ibid., January 17, 1989.

HE THOUGHT OF THE GOOD DAYS Ibid., January 16, 1989.

"MILLIE CHASES THE FOXES" Ibid.

HE ASKED HIMSELF Ibid.

Part VI: The Awesome Responsibility, 1989 to 1993 HERE I AM GHWB diary, May 26, 1989.

THIRTY: The Sun Started Through FOR WE ARE GIVEN POWER Inaugural Prayer, January 20, 1989, Michael Dannenhauer to Margaret Shannon, September 11, 1996, Washington National Cathedral Archives. I am grateful to Margaret Shannon for sharing the relevant correspondence about Bush's prayer with me.

"RESULTS-ORIENTED" Author interview with Dan Quayle.

"UNPREDICTABLE AND FRAGILE" Author interview with GHWB.

WHAT HENRY KISSINGER THOUGHT Author interview with Henry Kissinger.

COLD AND CLOUDY GHWB diary, January 21, 1989.

IN THE CAR ON THE WAY Ibid.

"WHEN I BECAME GOVERNOR" Ibid.

(HE HAD TAKEN) Garry Wills, Reagan's America: Innocents at Home (Garden City, N.Y., 1987), 299.

"AND SURE ENOUGH" GHWB diary, January 21, 1989. Bush was thinking of others even at the moment of his ascent to the presidency. The president-elect had told Tim McBride, his personal aide, not to bother with bringing his winter coat along: Bush was eager to take the oath and deliver his inaugural in his suit. Inside the Capitol, as Reagan and Bush readied themselves to go out on the podium, the president-elect noticed that Reagan was heavily bundled up in an overcoat and scarf. Not wanting to appear overly vigorous in contrast to the aging fortieth president, the incoming forty-first turned to McBride. "Where's my coat?" he asked, only to be reminded that he had instructed his aide to leave it behind at the White House. "But I need it," Bush said. As McBride recalled it, "He didn't think he should be coatless when President Reagan was in one. That would have risked showing Reagan up as old while Bush seemed younger and more vital." Bush found a diplomatic solution: He asked McBride if he could borrow his aide's coat. Of course, McBride said, and the president-elect of the United States marched down to his inauguration in a borrowed coat. (Author interview with Tim McBride.) BUSH'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS "Transcript of Bush's Inaugural Address," NYT, January 21, 1989.

WITHDREW A SMALL SHEET OF PAPER Michael Dannenhauer to Margaret Shannon, September 11, 1996, Washington National Cathedral Archives. See also "President George H. W. Bush 1989 Inaugural Address," https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S2ptmXsxzs.

"THERE HAS GROWN" Public Papers of the President of the United States: George Bush, 1989 (Washington, D.C., 1990), 14; "Transcript of Bush's Inaugural Address," NYT, January 21, 1989.

"SOME SEE LEADERSHIP" Ibid.

AS BILLY GRAHAM "January 20, 1989: Inaugural Ceremonies for George H. W. Bush," https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MW1c2PeZu9M.

THE BUSHES WALKED THE REAGANS Ibid.

JIM BAKER, WHO HAD BEEN Ibid.

LAMAR ALEXANDER...WAS ALWAYS STRUCK Author interview with Lamar Alexander.

"NO ONE EVER THOUGHT" Author interview with James A. Baker III.

"THEY KEEP PLAYING IT UP" GHWB diary, May 7, 1990.

BRENT SCOWCROFT For a comprehensive account of Scowcroft, see Bartholomew Sparrow, The Strategist: Brent Scowcroft and the Call of National Security (New York, 2015). My description of Scowcroft is also drawn from Naftali, GHWB, 6667, and my interviews with Scowcroft, GHWB, Richard Haass, and James A. Baker III.

BELIEVED THAT THE REAGAN "EVIL EMPIRE" Author interview with Brent Scowcroft.

BETTER TO STRIKE MODERATE TONES AWT, 1920.

SCOWCROFT ALSO INTUITIVELY KNEW Author interview with Brent Scowcroft.

SCOWCROFT...REFUSED TO SPEAK PUBLICLY Author interviews with Brent Scowcroft and James A. Baker III. Of course, there were inevitable anxieties about spheres of influence within the new administration. Bush told Baker that he "was thinking of sending Quayle to Europe" for a round of meetings. "It would be good for Quayle," Bush said. "It would be good for us to listen." Baker was reluctant, asking Bush "if there would be a conflict between this and [Bush's] pledge to have the Secretary of State talk to the foreign secretaries. And I said, 'No, we're not talking just on the Soviet Union account, we're talking on a wide array of issues. It's a listening session, it's good for us to show this early consultation, and it's good for me to have the Vice President doing substantive things.'"

Baker had another idea. "Jim suggested a tour of South America, and Quayle should go to the Venezuelan swearing-in," Bush told his diary. "I said, 'Well, that's fine, he should go to the Venezuelan swearing-in; but the foreign leaders will all be in Venezuela and he could have a series of bi-laterals.' Jim agreed with this. I sensed a little tension, but that's certainly nothing unusual, nothing that can't be managed." (GHWB diary, January 6, 1989.)

Nearly alone at the highest levels of the incoming administration, Bush was insistently supportive of Quayle. Wyoming senator and Bush friend Alan Simpson "told me he thought Quayle was going to come on fine. He liked defending Dan, and I think of the pounding Quayle has taken. I told Dan, 'Take an eraser, erase the name Quayle, write in the name Bush, change the date, and erase the "8" for 1988 and make it '87 or early '88, and you'll have the pounding for me, the same as you're getting now, Dan.' I'll stand behind this guy, and I'll stay with him." (Ibid., January 13, 1989.)

Still, Bush worried. "He does pretty well, but I think what a pounding the guy is taking," Bush told his diary. "Marilyn apparently is being a bit of a horse's ass on some things, pushing him around, leading him, and this he doesn't need....I get the feedback from the Secret Service that she's a bit of a pill. It's tough, but he needs support, not controversy....He's dying to do stuff. He comes up with a lot of ideas, some of which we can and can't do." (Ibid., January 17, 1989.)

Bush was somewhat wary of Marilyn Quayle after there was speculation that she might be appointed to fill out the four years remaining in Quayle's Senate term. The governor of Indiana had asked if she might be interested, but both the vice presidentelect and the president-elect thought having the Second Lady as a sitting senator would create too many complications for the administration. (Author interview with Dan Quayle.)

JOHN SUNUNU Author interviews with John Sununu, Dan Quayle, GHWB, and GWB. See also, for instance, Sununu, Quiet Man; John Sununu interviews, George H. W. Bush Oral History Project, Miller Center.

"SUNUNU THINKS A MILE A MINUTE" GHWB diary, February 16, 1989.

"LIKE A GOOD CHIEF OF STAFF" Richard Nixon to GHWB, April 10, 1989, Correspondence of Richard M. Nixon and GHWB, Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library.

DICK DARMAN, WHO BECAME Darman, Who's in Control?, 88, 191201.

AFTER FOURTEEN BALLS GHWB diary, January 21, 1989.

THE NEXT MORNING AT EIGHT Ibid.

"I WENT TO THE OVAL OFFICE" Ibid.

PRESIDENT REAGAN HAD LEFT HIM A NOTE "Ron" to "Dear George," Miscellaneous Files, "My Father, My President" Files, Dorothy Bush Koch Collection, GBPL (OAID 29458).

DEAR GEORGE Ibid.

"MOTHER WAS THE STAR" Ibid.

"SO FAR" Author interview with Nancy Bush Ellis.

THIRTY-ONE: If It Weren't for the Deficit...

I CANNOT BREAK GHWB diary, April 2, 1989.

"GEORGE, YOU KNOW" GHWB diary, January 25, 1987.

NIXON'S PREDICTION HAD PROVEN ACCURATE Tom Kenworthy, "GAO: Higher Taxes 'Probably' Unavoidable," WP, November 20, 1988. See also Greene, Presidency of George Bush, 7981; Naftali, GHWB, 6364, 7276.

"BASED ON DEFINITIVE ANALYSIS" Darman, Who's in Control?, 200; Greene, Presidency of George Bush, 7980. See also Naftali, GHWB, 63.

"THERE'S NO WAY I CAN RAISE TAXES" Author interview with Mike Dukakis.

"IT WAS CLEAR TO ME" Ibid.

ROGER PORTER WAS WEIGHING Author interview with Roger Porter.

"GETTING DEFICITS UNDER CONTROL" Ibid.

"REFLECTED HIS CONVICTION" Ibid.

IN 1989, BUSH FACED THE STUBBORN Greenspan, Age of Turbulence, 11213; Bruce Bartlett, "A Budget Deal That Did Reduce the Deficit," The Fiscal Times, June 25, 2010.

WITHOUT LOWER INTEREST RATES For the deficit and its implications, see, for instance, Sean Wilentz, The Age of Reagan: A History, 19742008 (New York, 2008), 303, 3078; LSY, 367; Patterson, Restless Giant, 246; Darman, Who's in Control?, 198, 200, 203; and Bruce Bartlett, "A Budget Deal That Did Reduce the Deficit," The Fiscal Times, June 25, 2010.

IN THE POLITICAL AND CULTURAL ETHOS Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000 (New York, 1987); Wilentz, Age of Reagan, 3034; Patterson, Restless Giant, 2023.

"IF IT WEREN'T FOR THE DEFICIT" GHWB diary, December 7, 1988.

BUSH SAW THE DEFICIT See, for example, GHWB diary, May 14, June 5, July 23, October 24, 25, 29, and November 6, 1989.