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Where the father lived to make friends, "W" has less time for it. His charm offensive is about a minute long. The Governor comes right up to you, squints hard, almost as if he's trying to scare you, then smiles, gets too close, closer than the permissible 18 in., touches you and gives you a nickname. If that hasn't won you over completely, he moves on to someone else, and you go down on his Suspicious Characters List. In Washington, Republicans cling to the notion that "W" is tougher, and tougher-minded, than the sentimental dad, that he is steelier, a realist who isn't afraid of Democrats, reporters, anyone. It is said so often and by so many people that it's easy to forget the old man could be tough too. The difference is that he thought twice about letting you know. "W" never tires of it.
Now, at 75, the former President is "obsessed" with the campaign, his wife admits. You can hear far more than you can see: the father has been busy all year e-mailing friends, building bridges, calling allies and donors, even working old foes in the press to go easy on his son. You can tell he's coaching "W" on foreign policy. When the son talks about the need for "certainty" above all in foreign affairs, he is channeling for Dad, whose diplomatic mantra was "The enemy is uncertainty." And in public, Dad is back in the motorcade, doing three stops a day, sometimes late into the night. On the stump he touts his son's record, but there's also some satisfaction in the way the worm has turned. "The country is crying out for a restoration of dignity and respect and honor that has been missing in the White House," the elder Bush said in Michigan two weeks ago. That line always gets the most applause.
And if the dad is helping the son, isn't the campaign at some level a crusade to redeem the dad, right a big wrong and in the process exceed every expectation--and then some? Ask old Bush hands about how much of this race is about that race, and most dismiss it out of hand, even though nearly all of them will admit to you that's why they are back in the fight. Only two or three will even talk about George W.'s complex motivation, and those who do choose their words carefully. "Look," says a Bush confidant, "somebody once said that to understand what moves a man, you have to understand the failures of his father. For 'W,' a pretty good piece of this is about 1992. How much? A pretty good piece."
This raises a haunting question for Bush, one that echoes the big question raised about his dad. The old man never wanted to do very much as President so much as he just wanted to be President, to sit behind that big desk and make the hard calls. George Bush never promised to be an activist in the Oval Office; he just promised to keep the ship in the channel. "W," whose public agenda is not much thicker than his father's, is essentially promising the same thing, but his private agenda is more pressing. Bush's father was worried at times that "W" wouldn't amount to much, but at some point everything fell into place. Would it really be so surprising if the mission that finally elevated "W" was the redemption of his own family?