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Sunday Morning News

Author Explores President-Elect's Character

Aired December 17, 2000 - 8:16 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, when George W. Bush first announced his candidacy for the president, many critics said his main motivation was simple -- revenge for his father's humiliating defeat in the 1992 presidential election. Of course, life is rarely as simple as it seems, so to plumb the depths of Mr. Bush's character, we turn to Elizabeth Mitchell, author of the book "W.: The Revenge of the Bush Dynasty." She is a former executive editor of "George" magazine and she joins us from New York. It sounds like some kind of Spielberg movie.

ELIZABETH MITCHELL, AUTHOR, "W.: REVENGE OF THE BUSH DYNASTY": I know.

O'BRIEN: Thanks for being with us, Elizabeth. But it is interesting. It's fascinating, the revenge factor. Before we talk about revenge, though, it's probably instructive to our viewers to talk a little bit about the father-son relationship here. You've got George H.W. Bush, has some pretty big shoes to fill, and it's interesting that the two were as close as they were. A lot of times in those cases, it goes exactly the opposite way.

MITCHELL: Oh, yes, definitely. I mean it could have gone the other way because of just the fact that it would be so hard to live under that shadow. So the son, you would expect, would fight it all the way. The other thing was that George W. Bush came of age during the late '60s and early '70s when everyone was sort of rebelling against their parental figures and he never did. I mean people would talk about how amazing it was that he never seemed to, you know, think that his father was wrong in any way.

O'BRIEN: Do you find that odd, that he didn't ever rebel? I find that very interesting.

MITCHELL: Definitely. I mean there -- his feelings about his father are truly worshipful and I believe that it is why he went into politics. I mean he has even said I am a guy who is in politics for love, not ideology. It's love for my father. And I think that he wants to show his father he thinks it's the grandest path you can take just because his father was his hero from when he was a little boy. He saw him as a war hero, a great baseball player, you know, a charmer with all the, you know, people of Midland, Texas. He was an oil, you know, tycoon basically, someone who had done a lot of innovative work there.

So, anyhow, George W. Bush had nothing but respect for his father.

O'BRIEN: But the character you describe there would not necessarily have a lot of passion for the calling they choose because they're choosing that calling not because it comes from some fire within. Did you find that in your research?

MITCHELL: Well, he, I think both when he ran against Ann Richards in Texas in 1994 and then even in this campaign, I really do think that it had a lot to do with this idea that he was going to prove to, you know, Texas and to the nation that his father was a great man. And Ann Richards had inspired the Bush family wrath by saying that thing at the 1988 campaign -- convention where she said poor George Bush, he was born with a silver foot in his mouth. And even Barbara Bush wrote in her memoir that she was just incensed by this.

And so after watching that devastating '92 campaign, George W. thought I'm going to go out there, campaign on similar issues but show how this can be done, you know, with the right passion in place and show that Anne Richards is not the woman that, you know, everyone thinks she is. And then with this campaign in 2000, I mean they were furious at Bill Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky issue because they felt this was just defiling, you know, even George Bush's legacy because it was so insulting to the presidency.

So they went out there to reinstate a Bush into the White House.

O'BRIEN: Now, during the campaign, it seems to me as if the Bush campaign kind of went out of its way to distance the father and son to show that George W. is his own man.

MITCHELL: Yes.

O'BRIEN: Nevertheless, I'm sure he was seeking his counsel fairly frequently. As we emerge into a Bush presidency, how much of a figure will George H.W. Bush be?

MITCHELL: I think he will always be there on the other end of the phone to offer advice to George W. Bush. I mean even the selection of, say, Dick Cheney as the Vice President was something that the father really thought was a great idea and George W., you know, concurred. But I think that it had a lot to do with what his father's feelings were about Cheney.

I don't think that he's the puppet of his father or anything like that, but I mean it's -- if you were starting, you know, your own business and your father had been in the same business, you might consult with him fairly regularly and in this case, President Bush has had a hard time completely relinquishing his interest in advising, you know, political figures. I mean he loves being a retired grandfather but he still wants to keep his hand in it. I mean I definitely think that he will be a participant.

O'BRIEN: All right...

MITCHELL: I mean basically... O'BRIEN: Real quick, Elizabeth, because we're about out of time, I've just got to ask you this.

MITCHELL: Yes?

O'BRIEN: Is George W. Bush his own man, briefly?

MITCHELL: Yes. I think that he is, actually. I mean one thing that I think his strength is he does appoint people who he trusts and then he does, he likes to listen to the back and forth, the kind of fighting between these figures, and then make his own decisions. But yes, I don't -- I actually don't think that he is, you know, as, again, just a puppet of these other figures.

O'BRIEN: Elizabeth Mitchell is the author of "W.: The Revenge of the Bush Dynasty." Thanks very much for being with us on CNN SUNDAY MORNING.

MITCHELL: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Good luck with the book.

MITCHELL: Thank you very much.

O'BRIEN: And good timing, too. All right.

MITCHELL: Well, thanks.

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