No one is more qualified to give a fully rounded, objective portrait of our forty-first president than Tom Wicker. A political correspondent for The New York Timesfor more than thirty years, Wicker was a first-hand witness to and reporter of George H. W. Bush’s political rise and presidential reign. In George Herbert Walker Bush, Wicker provides a richly drawn and succinct overview of Bush from his New England roots, his decorated service in World War II, and his successful oil businesses to his shift to politics and rapid rise within the Republican party. As he describes changes within the Republican party in recent decades, Wicker charts Bush’s career, including in-depth analysis of his campaign tactics and his gift for creating friendships and inspiring loyalty which, Wicker argues, has been the key to Bush’s success. The result is a fascinating, timely glimpse into one of the most powerful families in America today, complete with insights into the current reign of George W. Bush, the continued legacy of the Bush family, and contemporary American politics.

Tom Wicker covered American politics at The New York Times from 1960 to the early 1990s, when he succeeded Arthur Krock as writer of the -ôIn the Nation-ö column. He is the author of several books of nonfiction, including One of Us: Richard Nixon and the American Dream, and JFK and LBJ, as well as several novels.

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prologue NOT LONG AFTER George Herbert Walker Bush, the forty-first president of the United States, left office in 1993 and returned to Texas, an old acquaintance found himself at loose ends in Houston. Out of courtesy and curiosity, he called on the former president at his retirement office in the city?s federal building.Cordially and immediately, as befitted long association, the old acquaintance was ushered into a replica of the president?s Oval Office in the White House. George Bush, known to family and friends as ?Poppy,? sat smiling behind a huge executive desk on which there was not a scrap of paper?not a note, a letter, or even a message slip. While the two men chatted inconsequentially, the former president with his usual grace and friendliness, the phone never rang; no buzzer disturbed the conversation; no secretary or clerk opened the door; no request or notice of any kind was placed on the empty desktop. Their talk of old times was interrupted only when Bush escorted his visitor to a window and pointed out a house he and the former first lady were building in a nearby Houston neighborhood. ?Well, Mister President,? Bush?s friend finally thought it proper to say, ?I just wanted to say hello, but now I?m afraid I?m taking too much of your time.? ?No, no!? his host exclaimed. ?You?re not taking too much time at all. I?m really enjoying our conversation.? Whereupon the old acquaintance stayed for another session of pleasant small talk, during which? again?no sign of any other activity appeared in the ersatz Oval Office. It finally dawned on the visitor that the former president of the United States could take so much time with him because?like thousands of former executives who had retired full of years and honor?he had nothing else to do. But surely a man who had spent most of his life in high government office, including a term in the White House?who had in fact presided over the end of the Cold War?must have many ideas and plans, now that his time was his own? Many years before, the old friend remembered, he and George H. W. Bush had served together on the board of trustees of Phillips Andover Academy, of which they were alumni. During their long joint tenure, the man who would later be president was popular, a helpful figure to his colleagues, supportive of their ideas, willing to take on any task asked of him, doing such jobs well?but he had put forth not a single serious proposal of his own, or any weighty opinion, or even a significant statement. On the Andover board Bush had not seemed to want or need to do anything in particular for the school; he had offered no plans to improve its performance or the lives of its students?just as now, in the Houston Oval Office, behind the clean desk, the former president seemed to have nothing urgent on his mind. As the visitor finally departed, despite hearty exhortations to stay and talk some more, he could not help wondering if that pleasant hour and his memories from Andover suggested a sort of caretaker mentality?if during George H. W. Bush?s life and presidency he had seldom had stronger purposes than he had disclosed on the Andover board, or revealed needs more pressing than maintaining gracious relations with his friends?except, of course, what must have been a burning desire to become president of the United States. chapter one GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH* based his presidential campaigns on his extensive resume as a leader of experience and character. Like Dwight D. Eisenhower before him, Bush, as was pointed out by the historian Michael Beschloss, did not offer himself as a proponent of certain issues or of a definite ideology or of any particular policy?such as, say, helping most Americans achieve affordable health care.1In a long prepresidential political career, Bush often used family and political connections to accumulate the experience that suppose