Grodin On The Bush Family

One thing President Bush will have going for him is he's the son of people we know and most of us like.

While other presidents' moms or dads have been around sometimes, we've never really known them like we know the Bushes.

Recently the first President Bush talked about having dinner with the family. "George cooked and Laura fixed the salad and I did the dishes, as I always do, and it was just like we were back in square one 25 or 30 years ago," said the first President Bush.

George cooked.

The new president does appear to be extremely interested in food. In a recent New York Times interview when asked what White House perks he expects to enjoy the most, he said, "Good food. They've got great food. The dessert menu is unbelievable."

Of course that doesn't make him a bad person. And I don't have a problem with the new President Bush getting a lot of people his father knows to work with him.

If my son were ever elected president, I'd want him to have a lot of people I know around him, rather than a bunch of strangers who might do, who knows what?

Many parents fantasize that their child might some day grow up to be president. In spite of dad actually being one, I doubt the Bushes spent much time fantasizing about George W. being the leader of the free world.

It's true he seemed to have a great ability to make friends and have people like him, but when your kid drinks too much, once slammed his car into the garage of his parents' neighbors and he was even arrested a couple of times, you're not thinking "That boy's going to be president."

George W. Bush is really the comeback kid. Hopefully he will be a uniter not a divider, although some of his Cabinet choices haven't exactly had that effect.

I guess you'd have to define "uniter."

I see the charisma others see, and I hope it works for him on the largest stage of all. I don't see a smirk, and anyway, who among us would want every look that ever crossed our face analyzed? Wait a minute. Was that a smirk?

Also I think there's a real plus in the odd road this man has traveled to the presidency with its bumpy beginnings. He gives real hope to the young people who aren't doing all that great at the moment.

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