Cowboy in the capital

Bill Clinton shows the White House to his successor. (Photo: AP )

On the eve of leaving for Washington, George W. Bush and his wife Laura hosted American television star, NBC columnist Tom Brokaw, at their Texas ranch. Sitting next to the barn in the back of a Ford pickup truck, dressed in matching canvas jackets and blue jeans, the new president and first lady fended off Brokaw's pointed questions. “Have you really never asked your husband: “What have you gotten me into?” - “Of course I ask. Every day,” Laura Bush answered with a laugh, and the 43rd President of the United States smiled guiltily and nodded his head obediently in agreement...

At exactly noon on January 20, placing his left hand on George Washington's Masonic Bible, George W. Bush became the second son of a former president in US history to become the owner of the White House. By the way, in 1989, his father took an oath on the same Bible. Having proved to everyone that he “can,” Bush Jr. took the most important position in the world - in terms of responsibility and consequences of decisions made. In interviews that Bush Jr. gave to journalists on the eve of his departure to Washington for the inauguration, he sometimes made unexpected pauses and seemed to be trying to answer the main question for himself: “Will I be able to cope in my new position?”


The strength of the new president lies in his team. George W. Bush introduces four members of his cabinet. (Photo: AP )

Do you hear the boots rattling
Bush Jr. diligently maintains his “Texan” image and is proud of the fact that he came to Washington from the largest and most “American-cowboy” state. In the endless series of inaugural balls and receptions, the most prestigious was the famous Texas Ball with the motto "Tuxedo and Boots", held at the Washington Marriott Hotel. Tickets were sold for $2,000, and the nearly 9,000 people who managed to get in felt like they were chosen. Decorated with two five-meter cowboy boots and a curtain depicting the White House, the hotel banquet hall could hardly accommodate all the Texans who showed up to the ball in tuxedos, bow ties and boots. Twelve years ago, Father Bush wore exactly the same outfit to the Texas ball.

The day before, moving from Texas to Washington and, ironically, receiving the same government-issued Boeing 757 that his Democratic rival Al Gore flew on during the election campaign, Bush Jr. made a stop in Midland, which he considers his hometown. city. George and Barbara Bush moved to Midland when George Jr. was two years old. Among the attractions in this typical Texas town, located in the middle of a flat and parched plain, are the modest clapboard house in which the Bush family settled upon arrival, and the oil that made many Midlanders, including Bush the father, millionaires.

Last week, about ten thousand happy residents of this city came to greet their fellow countryman, who appeared before them in a wide-brimmed and dashingly angled hat - a real cowboy Stetson. “Only one reason can make me leave Texas: election as President of the United States,” Bush announced loudly, vowing that he would definitely return and would often come to his Texas ranch. Even before he decided to get involved in big politics, Bush Jr. acquired a huge ranch located two hours from the Texas capital of Austin. He named it “Chapel on the Prairie,” dug a large pond there to stock his favorite freshwater bass, and started having cows. Bush shows off his ranch to guests, driving around it in a jeep or pickup truck. He knows every blade of grass here.

For more than five years, George W. Bush worked as governor of Texas, and all his employees knew about the boss’s two main weaknesses - he invariably had to sleep for two hours in the middle of the working day, and preferred to spend weekends at his favorite ranch. Only at the very end of the presidential race, the journalists accompanying candidate Bush learned with amazement that at his ranch, except for the telephone, there was no connection. And the TV is tuned to only a few terrestrial channels - no cable, no satellite television, not even the ubiquitous CNN. During the battles over the recounts in Florida, the future president had to telephone acquaintances or aides and find out how things were going.

When Bush said goodbye to Texas, veterans of Washington's corridors saw a painfully familiar image: the figure of the president in a long, spacious black coat and a light-colored cowboy hat. Only Ronald Reagan walked this way. Raised on a pedestal by Republicans during his lifetime, the legendary president clearly remains an idol for Bush Jr., who often saw Reagan in his younger years, when Bush Sr. was his vice president. Ranch is also a Reagan style. Like Reagan’s beloved Californian estate, where Thatcher and Gorbachev visited him, “Chapel on the Prairie” will serve as a “summer White House” for the next four years, and it is no coincidence that even before Bush Jr. left for Washington, construction began to rumble on his ranch machines that laid “presidential” fiber-optic communications and cables.

Like Ronald Reagan, Bush Jr. in the White House will adhere to his favorite style, which is in fashion among managers and leaders of large concerns and corporations. While still governor, George W. Bush, without delving into the details, led through guiding “strokes,” outlining the task in general terms and leaving the details to experts and connoisseurs. That is why he is not at all embarrassed that the extensive collection of baseballs in his office takes up much more space than a very modest stack of books. “I know how to lead and be a leader, and that’s enough,” the governor liked to say. This phrase became the refrain of his election speeches. People who worked with him recalled that it was impossible to come to Bush Jr. with a thick folder of papers and explain in detail the details of a project or problem. Usually the governor would interrupt such a speaker mid-sentence and ask: “What solutions do you yourself propose?” After hearing the answer, he then made his decision. "He doesn't struggle with decisions," Vice President Richard Cheney said of his boss in an interview with The Associated Press.

The fast, decisive, “cool” style, which many Bush aides call “Texan,” seems to be one of the main differences between the new Republican “team” and their predecessors - the corrosive literalists Clinton and Gore. They always loved it when journalists compared them to professors and called them “walking encyclopedias” for their ability, without preparation (Clinton had no equal in this), to pour out dozens of facts and figures. When, during the election campaign, Bush Jr. could not remember the name of Aslan Maskhadov offhand in one of his interviews, Gore’s supporters gloated for a long time about the shameful blunder of the Republican candidate. Now, however, Bush Jr. can remind his opponent of the sarcastic phrase his father once uttered in a similar controversy: “If you are so smart, then why did I, and not you, become president?”

The creaking of cowboy boots on the streets of Washington is, of course, an exaggeration, but with the advent of the Bush administration, it seems that you are about to hear the clatter of real boots. The television screens were filled with graying heroes of Desert Storm, fighters against the scoundrel Saddam, and ardent supporters of the national missile defense system. While Clinton was characterized by risky globalization impulses, the Bush administration clearly gravitates toward the ideals of reliable defense and security. The briefing that new White House Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin gave to new recruits was succinct: “Respect the Secret Service and treat the military well.” Still the same signature Reagan style.

Bush Jr. can afford not to delve into the details of government affairs because he is confident in his immediate circle. Announcing the appointments, the president, not without pride, said that he had assembled a team that had no equal under any American president. One might add that his team is also the oldest of all recent presidential administrations. The average age of its members is 58 years, which is five years more than the average age of members of the Clinton administration, three years more than the Reagan administration, and a year more than the Bush administration. Fourteen of Bush's ministers are well over sixty, and the 54-year-old president, surrounded by such experienced “senior comrades,” can feel calm.


In preparation for his move to the White House, Bush personally loads furniture in his governor's office in Austin to be shipped to Washington. (Photo: AP )

How to show three fingers
French President Jacques Chirac, who was the first world leader to speak with the new American president back in December, amazed many by visiting the Brooks Brothers clothing store in Washington and using $4,000 to buy a bunch of shirts and ties in this bastion of conservative style, beloved by Republicans. for yourself, your assistants and guards. With the advent of a conservative president, even fashion in the American capital became more conservative.
If on the day of his 50th birthday Bill Clinton, together with film actor Harrison Ford, sang Beatles songs in two voices, including the indispensable Yesterday, then George W. Bush said that he did not like the Fab Four for “their strange psychedelic period.” And so it is in everything. From the classic and sometimes overly formal suits and dresses of Laura Bush (compared to the more fashionable outfits of Hillary Clinton) to the interior of the Oval Office, where the furnishings, furniture and colors are “Bush style” more conservative than “Clinton style”.

Many note that already in the first steps of the new administration, features of the previous, “pre-Clinton” White House are slipping through. Some things are reminiscent of the Gerald Ford years, some are reminiscent of Reagan, and some are reminiscent of Bush the Father.

The Reagan style does not exist without the mythology of the television series Dallas and Dynasty. When there was still a whole month left before the inauguration of the 43rd President of the United States, luxury cars suddenly began to stop often in one of the prestigious areas of Washington, and the ladies getting out of them hurried to a small jewelry store, which is famous for its catchy gold and silver brooches made by Ann Hand - owner of a salon and close friend of former first lady Nancy Reagan. Especially for the inauguration, Hand released a batch of exclusive perfume “Power”, which went like hot cakes. "It's a throwback to traditional scents. I'm trying to bring back a time when women were women and ladies were ladies. Perfume should create a nostalgic mood," the designer told the Washington Post.

Throughout his campaign and later during his inauguration, George W. Bush often greeted his supporters with three fingers raised, representing the letter "W" - the initial of his middle name (Walker). This is already his “brand” sign. There is a Republican spirit in Washington right now, heavily mixed with nostalgia. No one can say whether the new president will be able to develop his own unique style, which will be different from what has already been seen here.

Arkady Orlov, RIA Novosti - specially for Itogi , Washington


George W. Bush finds it easy to get along with high-ranking officials (pictured) and ordinary Americans. (Photo: AP )