Spence
09-05-2007, 10:29 AM
George W. Bush, the U.S. President, is prone to bouts of crying caused by the stress of his job and claims to have seen ghosts emerge from the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House, according to a new book on his presidency.
In a series of remarkably candid admissions by a sitting president, Mr. Bush confides to author John Draper he has been "sustained by the discipline of the faithful experience" during the most difficult days of his presidency.
"I've got God's shoulder to cry on. And I cry a lot," Mr. Bush says in Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush, which was released to U.S. bookstores yesterday. "I do a lot of crying in this job. I'll bet I've shed more tears than you can count, as president. I'll shed some tomorrow."
Mr. Draper interviewed Mr. Bush six times for the book - most recently in May, 2007 - and coaxed a bevy of previously unknown details about some of the most turbulent moments of his presidency.
...
The book casts Mr. Bush as disengaged - almost uninterested - as Hurricane Katrina approached the Gulf Coast on Aug. 28, 2005.
On the day before the hurricane struck New Orleans, he spent a day riding his mountain bike and swimming on his ranch in Crawford, Tex.
By the time he joined an emergency video conference about Katrina, he was so "gassed" by his physical exertion he did not ask any questions about the federal government's preparedness, the book says.
...
When a senior congressional Republican warned Dick Cheney in August, 2002, the United States would get mired in Iraq, the Vice-President reportedly scoffed.
"It'll be like the American army going through the streets of Paris [in the Second World War]," he said. "The people will be so happy with their freedoms that we'll probably back ourselves out of there within a month or two."
...
Perhaps the oddest revelation is an episode from 1992, when his father was president.
The younger Mr. Bush found the White House a "creepy place," Mr. Draper writes.
After exercising in a White House gym one evening, he told a friend he froze in his steps while approaching the Lincoln Bedroom.
Mr. Bush insists "he saw ghosts - coming out of the wall," according to the friend.Source (http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=07a5d5cb-70f1-4c3f-9822-55c624a48bee&k=0)
In a series of remarkably candid admissions by a sitting president, Mr. Bush confides to author John Draper he has been "sustained by the discipline of the faithful experience" during the most difficult days of his presidency.
"I've got God's shoulder to cry on. And I cry a lot," Mr. Bush says in Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush, which was released to U.S. bookstores yesterday. "I do a lot of crying in this job. I'll bet I've shed more tears than you can count, as president. I'll shed some tomorrow."
Mr. Draper interviewed Mr. Bush six times for the book - most recently in May, 2007 - and coaxed a bevy of previously unknown details about some of the most turbulent moments of his presidency.
...
The book casts Mr. Bush as disengaged - almost uninterested - as Hurricane Katrina approached the Gulf Coast on Aug. 28, 2005.
On the day before the hurricane struck New Orleans, he spent a day riding his mountain bike and swimming on his ranch in Crawford, Tex.
By the time he joined an emergency video conference about Katrina, he was so "gassed" by his physical exertion he did not ask any questions about the federal government's preparedness, the book says.
...
When a senior congressional Republican warned Dick Cheney in August, 2002, the United States would get mired in Iraq, the Vice-President reportedly scoffed.
"It'll be like the American army going through the streets of Paris [in the Second World War]," he said. "The people will be so happy with their freedoms that we'll probably back ourselves out of there within a month or two."
...
Perhaps the oddest revelation is an episode from 1992, when his father was president.
The younger Mr. Bush found the White House a "creepy place," Mr. Draper writes.
After exercising in a White House gym one evening, he told a friend he froze in his steps while approaching the Lincoln Bedroom.
Mr. Bush insists "he saw ghosts - coming out of the wall," according to the friend.Source (http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=07a5d5cb-70f1-4c3f-9822-55c624a48bee&k=0)