The Leadership of George Bush: An Insider's View of the Forty-first President (Joseph V. Hughes Jr. and Holly O. Hughes Series on the Presidency and Leadership) Review

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The Leadership of George Bush: An Insider's View of the Forty-first President (Joseph V. Hughes Jr. and Holly O. Hughes Series on the Presidency and Leadership) Review
The Leadership of George Bush: An Insider's View of the Forty-First President. By Roman Popadiuk. Illustrated. 227 pp. Texas A&M University Press. 2009 $[...]
September 30, 2009. Reviewed by P. David Romei, Ph.D.Character and Leadership
In the keynote address to the Democratic National Convention in 1988, the Texas State Treasurer Ann Richards said of Vice President George H. W. Bush, "Poor George, he can't help it - he was born with a silver foot in his mouth."
In one short phrase, Richards summed up how many in America thought about the man who was to become the 41st president. He was born to wealth and privilege, his achievements and service to country were often overlooked, and he was incapable of articulating his vision, policies and hopes for America. And, though Richards didn't say it, she made clear that Bush was about to inherit the presidency from the much admired and loved Ronald Reagan.
Roman Popadiuk has written an important work focusing on the insights he gleaned from George Bush on issues of character and leadership. The Leadership of George Bush: An Insider's View of the Forty-First President is a first hand account by the author based on many years of service with vice president, president and now former President Bush. There are few endnotes and a very limited bibliography: it is a personal reminiscence. Popadiuk is the long-serving and successful executive director of the George Bush Library Foundation and continues to serve George Bush.
Popadiuk has written a friendly and positive account of George Bush. He is too loyal to do otherwise. However, he has also illuminated many issues that have beleaguered Bush and those who have sought to understand him for many years. Fundamentally, he has produced a work that examines Bush's life experiences and how they influenced his character, values, management style and leadership.
From Bush's birth into privilege, to his heroic service as America's youngest fighter pilot during WWII, to his graduation from Yale University, Phi Beta Kappa, with a degree in economics, and his business career, Bush demonstrated a determination to succeed. But, more importantly, he exhibited personal modesty, a commitment to teamwork and "...taking the hand you've been dealt without complaining and making the most of it; believing that nice guys can finish first...". Bush's principles and values are from another age; an age that could not conceive of a president making public pronouncements like, "Bring `em on," "Mission Accomplished," and, "Get `em dead or alive."
Popadiuk reveals a private Bush that the public seldom observed. The many vignettes are enlightening, if not interesting, and demonstrate Popadiuk's keen skills of observing the powerful close at hand while not succumbing to the infatuation that often leads those near the powerful to become sycophants. The exclusivity of this terrific work is that it lays the foundation for serious future research, examination, and analysis.
Was it the economy, media or ineffective campaign team that led to Bush's failure to win re-election after a nearly 90-plus favorable rating in the polls following the Gulf War? Each has been blamed. Popadiuk, perhaps unintentionally, demonstrates subtlety the costly contradictions found in Bush's character that led to his defeat. Though Bush was aware of the symbols of presidential power and the importance to respect them, he failed to capitalize on those symbols because he was reluctant to use the office of the presidency for personal gain. Though Bush believed moral leadership is the essence of the presidency, his sense of fair play and his absolute refusal to attack people personally inhibited him from drawing distinctions between his own character and record and that of his opponents. Though Bush intellectually understood the need to express a vision for the country, his own sense of modesty and desire to give credit to others prevented him from using "high-falluting" words in "braggadocio" speeches that were staged.
Most revealing is that Bush identified personally with Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower. Popadiuk sees Bush as representing Roosevelt's life-long commitment to public service and Eisenhower's quiet, steady and effective leadership. Unfortunately, few people in America would agree because the differences between himself and these two presidents equate to the contradiction that is George Bush.
Bush loved politics and public service as did Roosevelt, but as much as Roosevelt loved confrontation in the public arena, Bush despised it. According to Popadiuk, "Presidential debates were a particular nuisance for Bush. He detested them, viewing them more as entertainment than substance, and therefore he did not regard them as being productive." And, "Bush was not comfortable with confrontation; it was not his nature." In short, George Bush appears to disdain politics. As much as Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan loved the political arena, Bush avoided and dismissed it. Simply put, raw politics were beneath him - no grand standing, no glad-handing, no confrontations, and no living by popular opinion or polls.
As for identifying with Eisenhower, recall that Ike was a man born in rural poverty, earned a degree at public expense at West Point, made a career in the service and rose to General of the Army, president of Columbia University and eventually the presidency. He was seen to be what he was: an American success story who pulled himself up by the bootstraps. The contradiction between Bush's self-perception of himself and how others saw him had much to do with his inability to connect emotionally with the American voter. It gave him a tin ear and allowed people like Richard's to argue that Bush didn't earn the presidency, but instead inherited it.
Yet, it is not only the contradictions in Bush's public and private persona, or his private principles versus public ambitions that define him. There is something more. Popadiuk reveals Bush's reluctance to be rude, unkind, demanding, confrontational or direct. Admittedly, leadership requires charisma, but charisma does not preclude one who has immense responsibility from holding those in whom he places trust to be accountable. Bush's management style precluded him from interjecting himself into the chain of command, and this failure led to a disjointed re-election effort, the John Sununu scandal, Newt Gingrich's nihilistic treachery on the matter of "no new taxes," Pat Buchanan's rebellion, and the costly dismissal of Ross Perot's candidacy in 1992. Bush suffered grave consequences because he refused to crack the whip on those mavericks that invested more into themselves and their ambitions than into Bush and his vision for the country.
Popadiuk describes in fascinating detail what it is like to work for a president as a member of the senior staff. The sacrifice of one's personal life when serving at the highest levels is not insignificant. Missed birthday parties, anniversaries, family vacations and personal income are but a small part of the toll. Yet, he also describes the advantages and opportunities, for example, sense of service, influencing policy, meeting celebrities and world leaders, and being at the table when history is made.
Popadiuk reveals a kind and moral Bush whose commitment to America's safety, security and quality of life is without question. Bush's overwhelming interest was in foreign policy not only because that is what interested him and where he felt he was strongest, but also because it was an area in which Congress had the least influence. Bush dismissed much of what he could not conquer or control as unimportant and petty, often to his own detriment. He preferred to focus on that which he could influence, control and win.
Something that may surprise many is how much Bush relied upon Brent Scowcroft on matters of national security and foreign policy. Though James Baker was his trusted friend and the secretary of state, Bush relied primarily upon the advice of Scowcroft on matters of presidential involvement in foreign policy matters. He left Baker to run the bureaucracy. One unstated result of this dependence is that Scowcroft was far more conservative and careful, typical of career military officers, than was Bush or Baker. A consequence of this reliance, in the view of many, but not in Popadiuk's, is that Bush was slow to recognize and acknowledge the historical changes that occurred on his watch in the former Soviet Union, Eastern-Block nations, and the rise of Boris Yeltsin. The buttoned down conservative West Pointer and Lieutenant General Scowcroft could not take the loud, vodka-loving, challenging Yeltsin seriously. He should have. To Scowcroft's credit, he has acknowledged that he couldn't imagine the collapse of the USSR so soon and feared its potential consequences. When a staffer tried to congratulate him on the eve of the USSR's collapse, Scowcroft responded, "For what? For standing back and watching everything unfold around us?"
An issue that Popadiuk did not address is that often-repeated question that Bush has answered a thousand times in his post-presidential life: why didn't you go into Baghdad and topple Saddam Hussein when you had him on the run? Bush's standard answer is that the United Nations only authorized the removal from Kuwait of Iraq's armed forces and occupation. Perhaps Scowcroft, Bush's loyal lieutenant, has the better answer: "Because we knew how to get to Baghdad, but we couldn't figure out how to leave."
Secretary of State John Q. Adams wrote the Monroe doctrine and James Monroe received credit. Unfortunately for Bush, the only doctrine...Read more›The Leadership of George Bush: An Insider's View of the Forty-first President (Joseph V. Hughes Jr. and Holly O. Hughes Series on the Presidency and Leadership) Overview

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