Papa Bush: Spare us the psychoanalysis

 

Former President George H.W. Bush doesn't like to talk about his son, the incumbent. For years, journalists assumed it was because Bush 41 didn't want to have to defend Bush 43 against critics.

Now it turns out that he didn't want to be subjected to arm-chair analysis about their relationship. Like the kind in Oliver Stone's upcoming biopic called W., which from the trailer (see below) seems to portray 43rd's career as a direct result of competition with his father.

In an interview from Beijing, where both President Bushes watched U.S. athletes compete in the Olympics, the father told the Washington Post that he resists talking about his son because:

Then somebody wants to psychoanalyze you, stretch you out on the couch...go into the differences that might exist.

Papa Bush, the first U.S. envoy to China and this year's honorary chairman for the U.S. Olympic team, could not resist defending his son from second-guessers. Noting the "big flurry" of pressure on President Bush to boycott the opening ceremony, his father said, "Well he didn't do that, and I think he made the right decision....It did a lot to strengthen the U.S.-China relationship today, which is better than at any time in history."

The president doesn't usually talk about his father much publicly either, but maybe something about the shared experience at the Olympics is bringing out the Inner Child in both of them. At an event where the two dedicated the new U.S. Embassy in Beijing, the senior Bush lavished praise on his son. And Bush replied:

My dad was a fabulous president. And I tell people one reason why was, not only did he know what he was doing, he was a fabulous father.

Let the psychoanalysis begin!

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Gerald Herbert / Associated Press

Comments

[Jeanine Seitz]

You must read psychoanalyst Justin Frank's book, "Bush On the Couch". From an ethical standpoint, innapropriate, but the author is accurate, all the same, so it would seem.