Opinion: Bush the elder outchats the talkative McCain

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John McCain usually is the one who dallies with reporters -- brushing off his press secretary to take as many as three questions after her habitual “We’re out of time.” But at the 4-acre compound of George H.W. Bush in Kennebunkport, Maine, McCain Monday found the former president outdoing him at his own game.

McCain probably had hoped for a camera-ready send-off after a news conference at the oceanfront retreat, where reporters strained to hear over the waves breaking against the rocky shore. But as McCain turned to leave, Bush began shaking hands with reporters and seemed keen to talk about his current adventures: how one of his guests exceeded 70 mph on the cigarette boat this weekend, how another boat ‘ran afoul of the rocks’ and his plans for another parachute jump (his last) on his 85th birthday next year.

McCain reappeared at his elbow with a tight grin, trying to steer him away. Bush obliged by walking McCain halfway down the driveway, but then turned back, insisting that the reporters take a look around the complex. So McCain gave up and left -- leaving for his third fundraiser of the morning, while his press corps took the tour.

Bush’s young assistant, Jim Appleby, took reporters past the tennis courts, the smaller house where the former president stayed as child and the large wood-shingle main house where they now summer. Former First Lady Barbara Bush, who is recovering from knee surgery, waved through the window.

When the first group returned from the tour, Bush was still talking with reporters. ‘Anybody steal any ash trays?’ he teased.

He then pointed out the private gym -– ‘the president works out there all the time when he’s here’ -– and seemed disappointed that the tour didn’t include the ocean side of the house, where he and Barbara watch the tide come in. ‘We’re so darn lucky,’ he said.

The elder Bush largely steered away from questions about his son’s presidency. But he did seem slightly wistful when a reporter asked whether he’d miss having the keys to the White House after his son leaves office.

‘I hadn’t looked at it that way,’ he said, thinking for a moment. ‘I expect I won’t have, no matter who wins,’ an automatic invitation to sleep in the Queen’s bedroom on the second floor of the White House.

-- Maeve Reston