George Bush's life of the rich and famous

He can never understand what it's like to be an ordinary American

Editorial by Bob Horowitz of Sustainable Enterprises

One thing Americans have always respected is the self-made man (or woman). We adore the person who is handed a lemon and makes lemonade. That was true in the 19th century, when Americans embraced the rags-to-riches fantasies of Horatio Alger, and its true today, with our rapt attention to shows like "American Idol." Partly it's because we hold out this fantasy for ourselves, however improbable; that if we're good enough and work hard enough, one day someone will discover that, and we will be rich and famous too.

All this makes the presidency of George "W" Bush even more puzzling. Here is a man who has never really had to work for anything. Born into one of America's prominent wealthy families, Dubya partied hearty, summered at the beach house in Kennebunkport, and yet got into Andover and Yale with grades that would barely get you or I into a community college.

He stole a spot in the Texas Air National Guard by using family connections to leapfrog over 500 more deserving candidates, thereby avoiding getting shot in the jungles of Vietnam.  Once in the National Guard, he missed much active duty working on political campaigns.  Then he bailed out of the military early; and there is much disagreement about whether he showed up for his last two Guard assignments at all.

His business ventures were all money losers funded by his family's millionaire friends; heck, he couldn't even find oil in Texas, though he was able to dump most of his Harkin Oil stock before ordinary folks realized they were a dry hole.

Besides putting Texas taxpayers on the hook for a fancy stadium, the highlight of his much ballyhooed baseball management career appears to be trading away future home run slugger Sammy Sosa.

Even his "election" was a fraud; Al Gore got a half million more votes, and 90,000 mostly black and democratic people were illegally prevented from casting a ballot in Florida, a state Bush "won" by 537 votes.

George W. Bush clearly did not have what it takes to succeed on his own.  He is where he is today because he was born the grandson rich of a rich United States Senator, and son of a CIA-agent/Congressman father who went on to become president.

Say what you will about him, but Bill Clinton is a self-made man. Ditto for Abraham Lincoln, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. George W. Bush is simply not in their league. Why, if not for his daddy and grandpappy, Dubya would most likely be swilling Lone Stars and watching Dukes of Hazzard reruns in a single-wide somewhere near Waco... and frankly, that's where he ought to be.

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