TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/021191/02119913.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 3.7 KB | 82 lines

                                                                                THE GULF WAR, Page 55

THE PRESIDENCY

George Was There


By Hugh Sidey


    There was a moment in the great ovation to U.S. desert
forces when the cameras in the House chamber caught the face
of Senator Ted Kennedy, as enraptured as everyone else by the
applause that would not cease. But in the din came a tiny echo
from more than two years ago at the Democratic Convention, when
Kennedy fevered his audience with his litany of Bush's
ditherings, following each charge with the taunt "Where was
George?"

    Last week George was there, the Commander in Chief who
organized and launched one of this century's most awesome
military exercises. Whether it will finally work is not the
question here. His power in some ways has never been greater.
The rolling applause for the men and women who serve in the
Persian Gulf was a confirmation of sorts, even a little
alarming in its hoarse embrace. Most Americans marched with
Bush, and from the beginning of the crisis there was no doubt
just where he was.

    The aura of war followed Bush all last week, visibly
enhancing his stature. More than 3,500 people jammed the
Washington Hilton for the national prayer breakfast that Bush
attended. The speakers engaged in a kind of nervous
one-upmanship in tribute to God and the G.I. At the Washington
Press Club Foundation's big dinner, which Bush did not attend,
almost no one dared rib the President. One of the few good
laughs of the night came from humorist Dave Barry who,
professing evenhandedness after some gibes aimed at White House
chief of staff John Sununu, said, "I would now level an equally
cheap shot at a high-ranking, influential Democrat -- if there
were any." Speaker of the House Tom Foley laughed a little too
hard. And on Friday when Bush visited three military bases in
the South that had units in the gulf battle, there was an
emotional intensity that topped anything Bush had ever
encountered in this country.

    How could the man Kennedy taunted be so resolute? And let's
not forget those who derided him as a wimp, a lapdog, every
divorced woman's first husband, a terminal preppy. His painful
politeness and unwavering loyalty to Ronald Reagan through
mountainous deficits and Iran-contra bumbling raised the
question of his backbone. He waffled on issues like abortion
and taxes, and even his supporters wondered in dark moments
about his inner stuff. What this may suggest is one more flaw
in our system of political assessment. In our dizzy campaigns
we analyze a candidate too much from a few one-liners lofted
by adversaries or twits. In the debate over terribly complex
domestic issues, we frequently heap scorn on even marginally
open minds that waver a bit.

    History shows that the demands of war often reveal special
qualities in Presidents not easily detected in the babble of
a political campaign. For 5 1/2 months Bush went down a
straight road to battle. There have been no black moods for
Bush as there were for John F. Kennedy in the Cuban missile
crisis when he believed there was a likelihood of a nuclear
exchange. Nor has Bush wandered through the darkened White
House as Lyndon Johnson used to do, as much confused by his own
experts as by his enemies in Vietnam. Richard Nixon sometimes
sought solitude and brooded for hours over decisions on using
American power. Bush sought out friends and Chinese food.

    It may be that Bush went through all of the known tortures
on the way to his decision. But they must have been entirely
internal. There is as yet no enemy or friend who claims to have
been witness when Bush was either uncertain or unclear. Some
wimp.