Nothing like a combination of nitrous oxide and Stan Getz to get the week off to a relaxing
\nstart, even if it had to begin this morning in the dentist’s chair. Anyway, getting back to reality
\n…<\/P>
\n
It’s well known that Molly Ivins has the president’s number. The current issue of Ivins has known Bush slightly since high school and has “studied him closely as [Texas] The machismo is what I suspect is fake. Bush is just another upper-class white boy trying to <\/P> One of the savviest writers around, Ivins can also be one of the funniest. Witness her current <\/p>\n Jim Hightower’s great line about Bush, “Born on third and thinks he hit a <\/P> No second acts in American life? I’m ready for more laughing gas.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nothing like a combination of nitrous oxide and Stan Getz to get the week off to a relaxing start, even if it had to begin this morning in the dentist’s chair. Anyway, getting back to reality … It’s well known that Molly Ivins has the president’s number. The current issue of Mother Jones reminds us […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-439","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-75","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nJones<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A> reminds us with her latest piece, which is not online yet. But it’s
\ntoo good to recommend without giving a substantial taste of her wisdom. <\/P>
\n
\ngovernor,” she writes. “What we have here is a man shaped by three intertwining strands of Texas
\nculture, combined with huge blinkers of class. The three Texas themes are religiosity,
\nanti-intellectualism and machismo.”<\/P>
\nLet’s assume the religiosity is genuine: no one is in a position to know
\notherwise. … The anti-intellectualism is also authentic. This is a grudge Bush has carried at least
\nsince his college days when he felt looked down on as a frat boy by more cerebral types. Despite
\nhis pedigree and prep schools, he ran into Eastern stereotypes of Texans at Yale, a common
\nexperience at Ivy Schools at that time. …
\n
\nprove he’s tough. The minute he is questioned, he becomes testy and defensive. That’s one reason
\nthey won’t let him hold many press conferences.<\/P><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
\n
\n
\nbest seller
\nIvins doesn’t offer sparkling gems of wit in the Mother Jones piece because she doesn’t need to.
\nThe straight dope is striking enough. What she provides is a clear appreciation of the president’s
\ncharacter and personal history. If we’ve heard the tale of Bush’s privileged background before
\nfrom others, no matter. Ivins tells it best:<\/P>
\n
\ntriple,” is still painfully true. Bush simply never acknowledged that not only was he born with a
\nsilver spoon in his mouth — he’s been eating off it ever since. The reason there is no noblesse
\noblige about Dubya is because he doesn’t admit to himself or anyone else that he owes his entire
\nlife to being named George W. Bush. He didn’t just get a head start by being his father’s son — it
\nremained the single most salient fact about him for most of his life. He got into Andover as a
\nlegacy. He got into Yale as a legacy. He got into Harvard Business School as a courtesy (he was
\nturned down by the University of Texas Law School). He got into the Air National Guard — and
\nsat out Vietnam — through Daddy’s influence. … Bush was set up in the oil business by friends of
\nhis father. He went broke and was bailed out by friends of his father. He went broke again and
\nwas bailed out again by friends of his father; he went broke yet again and was bailed out by some
\nfellow Yalies.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n