American Presidents: Totalus Rankium - 43.1 George W Bush

Episode Date: January 20, 2024

We have covered Daddy Bush, But does Baby bush live up to his father? Does he even care? (Yes - yes he cares a lot. The man has daddy issues) Join us as we cover W's early life!

Welcome to Totalus Rankium. This week, George W. Bush. Hard one. Hello and welcome to American President's Totalus Rankium. I'm Jamie Derbier Totalus. And I'm Rob W. Rankium. And here we are, episode 43.1. It's George W. Bush. Oh, and we're ranking all the presidents in case you hadn't got that.

Yes. All the way from Washington to the last one. Yes. Which could be Trump again. Who knows who it'll be by the time we get there uh but let's move swiftly on from that okay 43.1 jamie it's george w we are right up in modern times now i know i like have clear memories of this president yes how's it feel to be here in the modern times? Um, scary. Scary, it is. Um, I mean, who knows what can happen? Who knows?

Who knows? Well, what should happen is an introduction. Yes, an eye of a chicken. Eye of a chicken. So start close up on the eye of the chicken. It's twitching slightly as if it's checking out the scenes, like the little pupil of the chickens darting here, there everywhere and as you pan out and swing you around you realize the chicken is on top of a building wearing a party hat and uh he's just just looking confused why

he's there and there's other things like a cone and a sofa and various things on top of this building on the roof of of an apartment complex. Things that shouldn't be there. What the hell is going on? Oh, it's just crazy. It's a party. There's a party going on, Jamie. Okay.

Sounds of cheering, sounds of fun. Splash! There's someone jumping in a swimming pool, because as it swings round, you see there's a swimming pool, and lots of people are just around the swimming pool, enjoying themselves. Occasionally, you spot someone taking a sip of an alcoholic beverage. Occasionally, someone is smoking something quite far away.

It's hard to tell. Anyway, start to notice one person as you zoom in is just sort of passed out on a sun lounger. And the camera just keeps panning in, keeps panning in, and you're getting closer and closer, and you realize this person is just out of it completely, drooling out of his mouth slightly. Nice.

Yeah, and it zooms right into the eye, which is still closed, remember? And you just zoom in past all the drooly mouth and the twitching nose of someone who is drunkenly unconscious and then suddenly the eye snaps open and looks terrified and then smash onto the screen just the word dubya. Apostrophe, dubya, apostrophe. Yes.

Like it, like it. And there you go. That's how we start our George Dubya Bush episode. Intriguing. I want to know more about the chicken. Oh, who knows how the chicken got there, Jamie? Who knows? Maybe we'll find out. Maybe we will. Well, here we are for the second time in this podcast. We're going to cover the son

of a former president. Bush II. Yeah, not since we have done John Quincy Adams. The start of the podcast have we gone through the life of a person whose background we already know. I'm watching the... Let's cut this. Just an aside. Watching the Gilded Age,

which is Julian... Same guy that did Downton Abbey and Pride and Prejudice, but it's set in the 1880s of America, New York, and just opened in Brooklyn Bridge. And the president's been invited, and it's Chester A. Arthur. He wasn't the president at that time. Oh, he was? Was he not?

Oh, no, did they get it wrong? They got it. Well, either he's the ex-president, they're just calling him president. They didn't the president at that time. Oh, he was? Was he not? Oh, no. Did they get it wrong? They got it. Well, either he's the ex-president, they're just calling him president. They didn't make that clear. Which is, yeah, that is likely. Yeah. Good old Chester Arthur. I remember him and his corruption. Oh, the gilded AJ. Yeah, it's all about that. It's really good.

Oh, no, I should watch it. I really should. But yeah, so we're covering someone this time that we already know, sort of. Yeah. Because obviously we know what his dad got up to time that we already know. Yeah. Sort of. Yes. Because obviously we know what his dad got up to. Daddy Bush, yeah. Yeah, because obviously we covered the life of Poppy George H.W. Bush.

Poppy remembers what his nickname was. Lots of the books I am reading just refer to him as Poppy when they're covering George W.'s life because it gets confusing. So they use his nickname, Poppy. We've already got a nickname for him. It's Daddy Bush. Yeah. So. Big Daddy Bush.

George H.W. Bush will be Daddy Bush throughout this episode. Nice. And if I'm just talking about Bush or George, then it's this week's George Bush. Dubya. Dubya. That's it. So we start in July of 1946. Trump is a month old and Clinton, Clinton is due in a month. I don't know why, it just fascinates me that these three were born within two months of each other.

So close together. It's crazy. I know I've mentioned it a few times now. If you're binging these, you're probably going, yeah, well, we get it. Yeah, drop. Yeah, I just really feel like there should be a series of the three of them, like the three of them going through their whole life because they're the same age as each other and seeing what they were doing. I just think that would be really interesting. Anyway, George W. Bush is born, named obviously after his father. So George Walker Bush is his name. Oh, that'll be his son's name.

Yeah. Always wondered. He was the first child of George and Barbara. We're in New Haven here. Daddy Bush has just completed his freshman year at Yale. If you remember, Daddy Bush has come home from the war where he was shot down and almost died. He went onto

the submarine for a bit and they did all of that exciting stuff. Anyway, that's happened. He's come home and he signs up for Yale through family connections. Remember, the Bush family were well-connected and rich. We're not talking Kennedy family rich here, but still, they're doing all right for themselves. Daddy Bush's father, if you remember, was Prescott.

He had made a lot of money in investment banking, and he was just about to get into politics at this stage where little George Bush was born. So he's about to get into politics at this stage where little George Bush was born. So he's about to get a seat in the Senate. So, in other words, George Bush is born into a rich family. His granddad is about to become a senator. His dad is a war hero and is at Yale. We saw all the advantages that these family connections gave Daddy Bush during his episode.

So let's see what effect it has on little George, shall we? I'm sure only positive. Only positive, of course. Well, little George was two years old when his father announced that he did not want to follow in the footsteps of his father. So Daddy Bush turned down that job in banking and announced he would make his own way in the world. So if you remember, he headed to Texas with nothing but the shirt on his back and a huge pile of cash and a book full of contacts his father

had given him and a job lined up by his father in an oil company. That's all he had. Self-made man. Yeah, I mean it all fit in a handkerchief on his stick. It was great. With his butler carrying a safe on him. Yes.

Excuse me sir, you have dust on your shirt. Well, due to his age, little George would have seen Texas as home. His earliest memories were in Texas, not being up in Massachusetts. Yeah. Texas is home for him. When Daddy Bush was transferred to California

for about a year, if you remember, I briefly mentioned that, George's life would have felt a bit chaotic, but he's only three at this point, probably has little memory of it. And then things settled down for the Bushes when they moved back to Texas and they moved to a town called Midland. Now, Midland was where the headquarters for the oil businesses tended to be. So you think of Texas, oil towns popping up all over the place. Some of them are a bit rough and ready around the corners. You've got oil factories, you've got drilling sites and all sorts. That's not Midland. Yeah. Midland is where the fancy people who own the companies live. Ah,

I see. Yeah, exactly. They moved into a street nicknamed Easter Egg Row because all the houses were painted bright colours, apparently apparently which is very nice their house was a bright blue color around this time george had a little sister called robin oh no yes now you do remember yeah unfortunately she did not last long she died of leukemia at the age of four yeah george is six going on seven uh this time uh and baby brother, Jeb, had just been born. Jeb! Yeah, Jeb, he comes into it. Not much in this episode, but he's around.

Or any of the future plays. George... He's mentioned a bit. Anyway, George talked about his sister dying while he was present, and he admitted that it had very little impact on him, which surprised me slightly. I was expecting, when I looked this up, to see if he ever talked about his sister,

him to talk about how it helped him formulate views or it had an impact on him, made him think about leukemia maybe. But no, he's just very straightforward. In fact, I'll just quote him. I really didn't understand what was happening. We were in Midland. The child was taken to New York. I say we, Jeb was barely born.

I watched my mother and father cry for the first time. So he just says it didn't have much of an impact on him, he was too young. And interestingly, all through the the interview he always refers to robin as the child or a child not my sister it's just something i noticed when he was talking it's like the child was taken to new york it's it's just not obviously not something that emotionally impacted him he was just young enough that it didn't really make an impact i guess that's a really honest response as well, because it'd be really easy to hammer up, wouldn't it? It would, yeah.

It stood out to me. Here's a politician. Yeah, here's a politician. You could use that. You could say how you struggle with adversity, so you're like one of the people. But no, no, he was very honest, said, no, it didn't really affect me.

Affected my parents, not me. And it did affect the parents. We saw this in Daddy Bush's episode, didn't we? Barbara absolutely torn up over the death of her daughter. Daddy George struggled as well. The two of them struggled in their relationship. George, however, just didn't really understand

what was going on. Anyway, like I say, little Jeb is born by this point, and then comes Neil, Marvin, and Dorothy over the next seven years. So nice nice little family there i can't no this is that mean what would you name a child neil i'm so sorry to anyone listening called neil it's just i can't imagine a little tiny baby neil or frank or fred some names going on out of fashion i know i know? I know, I know. They do. Baby Ian? What?

I say that, it will come round. There's a trend now of calling little babies old people names, and it sounds cute, like Little Ethel. Because there are no Ethels around anymore. Apologies to all the Ethels listening. So it just goes round. But I know what you mean. I know you're right. I'm sorry. It's hard to imagine a baby Keef.

This is Keef. He's a right lad. All of you, give him a bowl. Apologies to all Keefs listening. We should probably stop this. And don't get me started. Should we just get the

book of names out? Names tous racium Anyway, let's move on before we offend all of our listeners Yeah, yeah, Alistair Anyway Sorry, it's a lovely Welsh name From the valleys Anyway, George looks back on these years with happiness

So obviously the death of Robin is sad But everything else apparently was pretty good. I'll quote him again. Those were comfortable, carefree years. On Friday nights, we cheered on the Bulldogs of Midland High. On Sunday mornings, we went to church. No one locked their doors. Years later, when I would speak about the American dream, it

was Midland that I had in mind. So, full-on rose tinted glasses of his childhood. We remember Daddy Bush's episode. Things weren't quite that easy. This was arguably one of the toughest times in Daddy Bush's life and also in Barbara's life. But for George, it was great. So you could argue they were doing a good job as parents since George did not notice any hardship at all.

However, Daddy Bush was not around much. He was making his way in his oil business that had started up. Barbara did most of the raising of the kids. When George was around 13, they moved to Houston to be closer to their father's business. George was enrolled in the fanciest prep school that the region offered, Kincade. He got on well at

school, not academically, but he was well liked by the staff and the other kids. But his time there was short because he was soon sent all the way up to Massachusetts to enroll in Andover, the school where his father went. In fact, I'm just going to quote what I said in Daddy Bush's episode about this school just to remind you which school it was.

So this is me quoting me. Andover was a school that was designed for those of the social status of the Bushes. The idea was to rub the cockiness and smugness out of the children being born into American aristocracy. No one seemed to think that just sending them to a normal school could do that, so they were sent to a special school that cost a fortune to teach them humility. I was clearly feeling a bit sassy when I was writing those notes. But, I mean, it is ridiculous.

We need our children to be normal, so we'll send them to the rich school to teach them to be normal. So that's where he went. We should beat the normal into them. The golden sticks. Daddy Bush didn't hugely enjoy his time here. George hated it. He did not have a good time. He got on fine in Kinkade, but he was not prepared for the rate of academic learning in Hanover. I'll put it bluntly, the most books put it that I read. Most books were very polite, shall I say. George was not good at academia. He was not academically inclined. He was not academically inclined at all. So are we essentially saying he's thick? In the world of academia, he is subpar, shall we say. he didn't quite pass the mark no he struggled in

lessons he just he did not understand what was going on he was where am i we we're both teachers we understand the challenges that children face who struggle with academia in a school setting but we're also teachers so we both know what i'm saying when i say he was on the triangle table yeah oh gosh yeah right hexagons i want you to write a thesis in alberta science theory relativity triangle table play with jelly molds pretty much that kind of thing yeah okay yeah he was soon left in the wind flapping in the breeze he was in his lessons i should do his trousers up was something that he was used to in his old school he wasn't like he was doing great academically in his old school, but he kind of got away with it there because he was popular and it was Texas.

He just knew his way around. He knew what he was doing. But suddenly he was up north with a bunch of posh northerners who looked down on his southern drawl. And he was not understanding the work. And everyone else was just breezing through it. He felt stupid. Yeah, it's going to knock your confidence.

Going to Hanover was the hardest thing I did until I ran for president almost 40 years later, he said. He did not have a good time. Now, his father had found some relief in sports when he was there. George did not. He enjoyed sports, but he just wasn't naturally very good at it. So he didn't even have sport as a relief, which is quite often something that children who aren't great academically have something else.

Sports wasn't an option for him either. They were off the table. So George fell back on the only other avenue for a boy at school. You're not good at class. You're not good at sports. So what can you do instead? Mess around. Mess around.

He became the class clown. I'll quote one of his schoolmates here. He did not have a lot of respect for authority, so he was not afraid to mouth off. We called him The Lip. W The Lip. That's how posh and northern all the people were. Ah, we're sure W The Lip.

There you are, The Lip. You crazy southerners. Yeah, The Lip was soon at the centre of any party being had. Being the Joker party animal soon got him friends. It works. That's why people do it. He soon stood out. But as one of his classmates said, it wasn't, and I quote here,

for any ostensible reason. He was an attractive guy, very handsome. He had a presence to him. He had a cool look. So in other words, it was cool. It was fun to be around, but there was nothing you could write down on paper and say, this is why he's doing good at school. How the hell did he become president? Oh, just wait. Anyway, with no way into, um, sport that he enjoyed, he decided he was going to become a cheerleader instead.

Um. Yeah, which is exactly what I did. And I went down a rabbit hole because I went, um. Okay, quick, very small cheerleading rabbit hole here. Cheerleading seems to have started in Princeton in the end of the 1800s as a set of chants for the football team was becoming so popular that some of the athletes were put in charge of directing the chants just to get more atmosphere. So the cheerleaders, the people leading the cheers, were the players.

It's just they, in breaks in the play, walk to the side and start directing the chants. Fight and win! Yeah. The University of Minnesota soon organized a whole squad of cheerleaders to do this. So it wasn't just the athletes. You would get other people to come on and direct the chanting. And over the next couple of decades, other universities joined in.

And it was almost an entirely male-dominated area, which makes sense. The sport was male-dominated. So who's going to go, come on, everyone, let's start cheering? Well, it's going to be the people involved in the sport you can see how that started is there like a genius bright spot when do you know what most people watch this are men and you know what gets men going women in short skirts well yeah it doesn't take it doesn't take too long but i'll i'll get to that because like i say almost entirely male dominated to begin with we have already come across three other presidents who were cheerleaders at school, something that passed me by in all of the research.

Otherwise, I would have already gone down this rabbit hole. Can you guess? I will give you five ranking points if you get one, ten if you get two, and I will give you 50 if you get all three. Woodrow Wilson. No. You've only got three guesses. Aww. No, I'll give you five guesses you get all three. Woodrow Wilson. No. You've only got three guesses.

Oh. No, I'll give you five guesses. Five guesses. Five guesses. Oh, no, because he'd have been too old at that point, wouldn't he? So when he saw him, perhaps near the beginning of the thing. Let's go with Johnson. Lyndon B.

Nope. Oh, damn it. Nope. Because he's quite sporty. Yeah, yeah, that was a really good guess. He had a penis propeller. Yes, he did. Yeah, no, he was a really good guess. He had a penis propeller. Yes, he did. Yeah, no, he was a footballer, but he was a star footballer,

so he was the star. Yeah, so he didn't have time for that. But yeah, that made a lot of sense, but that wasn't him. So I guess it's people that have charisma but may not be the best at sport. Yeah, possibly. So I'm going to say George H.W. was he one? No, his father was not one really badly you've got two

more guesses you could theoretically still get 10 ranking points okay and if you're playing along at home don't forget to log your ranking points if you got some um oh um what's his name the war president second world war who was in a wheelchair what's his name i mean yeah i'll give you give you that yes roosevelt i was thinking roosevelt i thought no that's there's there's the other roosevelt but yeah roosevelt yep fdr was a cheerleader yes well done that's five ranking and you got one more guess oh you pulled it out the bag at the end there there we go you got two out of three in the end very impressed it is f is FDR, Eisenhower, and Ronald Reagan. No, Eisenhower's the one I was thinking of.

Oh, right. Okay. But that's fine. Well, you would have got him anyway. So there you go. Ten ranking points to you, Jamie. Well done. Spend them wisely.

I've not been so lush since the 40s. Gosh. I honestly can't tell you how many you got in total now. We will have to check our Discord where they keep track. So, yeah. Anyway, let's carry on. As often the case, it was World War II that opened up opportunities for women to do male-dominated jobs. And wear trousers. Well, not in this case.

The men were off fighting, so the women were increasingly allowed to lead the cheers. So where we are in George's life is when cheerleading is steadily turning from male dominated to female dominated, and it is not consistent across the country. Andover, steeped in tradition and being made up in the North New England, was still very male dominated because that was their history as their school. By the end of his time at Andover, George was the head cheerleader. So this was something he was successful in. Excellent. Places back home in Texas, however, not as much history there. It's a newer place.

Obviously, it's not completely new. You had to republic, but you know what I mean. There isn't quite the same type of history there. So they didn't cling on to the male-dominated cheerleading as long. Cheerleading was increasingly associated with pom-poms and short skirts. This was something that George was very aware of. I'll quote him, they would have had a field day if they

knew I was a head cheerleader. In Texas cheerleaders are girls with big hair, twirly skirts and pretty legs. Oh, you should have so got on the team. Well, he was proud of what he was doing in Hanover because that was a prestigious part of the school yeah culture

his head cheerleader but he also knew but it's not something he could boast about back home in texas because he would have been mocked he would have been mocked mercilessly anyway in 1963 george graduates uh he ended up a popular student he was given and quote, a big man on campus as his title in the yearbook, because he was the fun, fun-loving George Bush. He didn't do so well academically, though. He came almost last in his class. But then it gets exacerbated, though, doesn't it? Because he's not going to then start trying, so it just got worse and worse. It may not be an indication of him intellectually, perhaps. Again, we see it all the time in our jobs. It may not be an indication of him intellectually, perhaps. Again, we see it all the time in our jobs. It's a spiral that children can go down as soon as they think they're not capable, definitely.

Anyway, the dean even suggested that he not bother applying for Yale as he was unlikely to get in. Now, this is shocking because Hanover is essentially a feeder school for Yale. You spend the money to send your children to Anover so they get a free pass to Yale. That's essentially why you do it. So not going for Yale from Anover was like just unheard of. But in George's case, just don't bother. They won't let

you in. It'll be too hard for you, George. However, George had one thing going for him in this regard. And what was that? Personality? No. But he was a big man on campus. Yeah, that's not going to help him get into Yale, though, is it? Oh, rich. Well, essentially, his name. Yeah. His grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a Yale man, and he was often referred to as the Senator from Yale. He made a big deal about being at Yale, and he's in the Senate. There was no way Prescott's grandson as the Senator from Yale. He made a big deal about being at Yale, and he's in the Senate. There is no way Prescott's grandson wasn't getting into Yale. So a call was made, or a letter was written,

and then all of a sudden, oh, wouldn't you know it, George is going to Yale. Now, George at the time was frustrated at anyone he thought might think that this was a bad thing. It's not clear whether people told him that this was nepotism, but he was certainly a bit sensitive about the idea, because he told a friend at the time that the problem with the Ivy League liberals that he was with is that they had far too much guilt about being born into privilege. To George, going to Yale was his birthright. It didn't matter how good he was. He was a bush, so he gets to go to Yale, was his attitude. Oh.

Yeah. And that's not reading between the lines here. That's what he said to his friend. Quote verbatim, right? Not quite a quote verbatim, but the gist is definitely there. That is how he saw the world when he was this age. Anyway, he was very happy to leave Hanover, describing it as losing a straight jacket.

The academia was no easier at Yale, obviously. It's not like the work suddenly became easier. It did just as badly in this area. But he had a lot more freedom to do what he wanted to do, which was party. Yay! People don't breathe down your neck as much in higher education, do they? That is very true. Yeah, so he just sacked that off.

Let's forget that. I can't do that anyway. What I can do is party. is very true. Yeah, so he just sacked that off. Let's forget that. I can't do that anyway. What I can do is party. Let's party. He later admitted that he learned nothing at all at Yale, but he soon had a reputation as a hard-drinking, good-time party animal. What did he study? Did he study art? No, he studied history. Oh, good lord. Yeah, now, I could not find much detail on his time at Yale. It'd appear that he didn't do too much apart from have a good time. But I couldn't find any interesting stories or anything. He didn't really

bother to study. I mean, he did history, but that's not a huge sign that he was ever interested in the subject. He carried on cheerleading. He did do that at university, so we know he did that. Perhaps his personal greatest achievement at Yale was being accepted into the secret society called the skull and bones that does sound cool i want to be part of that society does sound quite cool as as fraternity things go skull and bones sounds quite

cool um we've talked about societies at the universities before and the problems but also the benefits and everything that they've got anyway Anyway, Skull and Bones is one of the three big societies at Yale. It's still there now. It's around 150 years old at the time that Bush was entered. And because it was 150 years old and because it was at Yale and it's one of the big three, you can imagine it had a lot of powerful past members. Taft was a member, for example.

Got a past president in there. And more recently, George's father Daddy Bush was in Skull and Bones So George getting into that He would have been very happy He's following in his father's footsteps He's not a party dropout Who's thick

He's following in his father's footsteps That's what he's doing Anyway, George much preferred doing things for this society Than studying By the end of his time at Yale, if there was one thing he had learned, it was a disdain for intellectual snobs. He really, really disliked the whole academic part of being at a university. And because he felt intelligently inferior to everyone, he really disliked what he saw as intellectual snobbery.

We can get that. We can understand that. Part of this will be his own insecurities. A lot of it will be because he was around a lot of intellectual snobs. I mean, he's at Yale. Well, yeah. So stuff coming in from both directions there, I'm guessing, is what led to him being really unhappy with a lot of the people he went to university with.

He did very little for the rest of his life to do with Yale. There are some people who never really leave their universities. They're constantly going back, giving talks if they're famous, meeting up with people. It influences all their future jobs. Not George Bush. Once he's gone, that's it, really. He goes back a couple of times after he's president Because they ask him to go there And pay him a lot of money to do it But yeah he ends up with no love for the place In 68

He graduates He does not do great as you can imagine But he does graduate They are not classed You just graduate from Yale I get the feeling that it's hard to not graduate From Yale It's hard to not graduate from Yale It's hard to get in

It's not hard to get through If you know what I mean Yeah, I'm with you So yeah, he coasted his way through all of his university life Oh, slight aside You know I said I'd like this three-way drama Of Trump, Clinton and Bush Yes

Right, well, just in case you wanted to know Because Yale, I've got to this point It's like, hang on, Clinton went to Yale. They're the same age as each other. Were they there at the same time? No, they missed each other by two years. Clinton obviously went to Georgetown. He went to Yale Law afterwards.

He didn't go there straight away. So Clinton went to Georgetown, then he goes to Oxford. So Clinton's about to go to Oxford at this point, and he will be in Yale in a couple of years' time. But even if they were there at the same time, there's no way their paths would have mixed. They're two very different people. Clinton's the intellectual snob, I guess. Clinton was the intellectual snob

who was getting into all the politics, and George Bush was the party dropout who hadn't actually dropped out. Anyway, George spends the next couple of years trying to stay out of Vietnam. Yeah. He's graduated. There's no stopping his draft. Now, unlike Bill,

George had pretty much ignored Vietnam. Bill had been going on all the protest marches and stuff. He was very passionate about it. George, it had nothing to do with him. Just didn't really bother him. He certainly didn't protest. His father, as we have seen, had just been elected to Congress and he was a supporter of the war.

So George was not going to embarrass his family by going to anti-war marches. Definitely not. No. But equally, he didn't like the idea of going off and being shot at and killed. It puts a dampener on the day, doesn't it? I think on most days.

Yeah, so he was in a bit of a quandary. Yeah. One of his classmates said, and I quote, he felt that in order not to derail his father's political career, he had to be in military service of some kind. So he's got to do this. Later in life, Bush said, I knew I would serve, but leaving the country was not an option for me. I was too conservative and too traditional, which I think this is a quote that helps us understand George as a person. The very fact that he saw it as an option, whether he would go to Vietnam, even though he served in the military, shows you. This was what he said in 1999, by the way. So we're talking just before he becomes president. But he was right. With his background,

it really was an option. Because as you can imagine, a couple of phone calls and things will be sorted out. So around Christmas in his final year at Yale, Daddy Bush suggested the Texan Air National Guard would be a very fine place for his son to do his military service. To admin duty. Oh no, far more exciting than that. That's worth seeing in a moment. There were around 100,000 men hoping for a spot in the Texan Air National Guard.

It was a cushy number. Currently, how many spaces do you think it had for the 10, sorry, for the 100,000 men hoping to get him? Uh, three. No, you went far too high, zero. There were no spaces. There were no spaces at all. Okay. Yeah.

Sorry, way off. But, wouldn't you know it, George gets the spot. So that's nice, isn't it? Brilliant. Yeah, they found a place for him. It may have helped that Daddy Bush knew a man who was well-connected with the guard. Maybe. Who knows?

Who knows? Anyway, he was placed in the 147th unit. This was also known as the Champagne Unit. Oh, no. Because this is where the Sons of Important People went. He was in this unit with a couple of Sons of Senators, the Son of an Oil

Baron, interestingly several players from the Dallas Cowboys who had been found a spot by the coach of the team. It's like, no, I don't want to lose my good players. Quick, let's put them there. Keep them safe. Now, I got a lot of this early stuff of George's life from the biography by Gene Edward Smith,

and I'm just going to quote from that book for his time in the military. George W. Bush's brief military career provides a case study in preferential treatment. Not glowing. Yeah. After six weeks basic training, he was made second lieutenant.

That does happen sometimes, but usually only when you are something like a doctor and you're about to go into a special unit with your skills you're bringing. Needless to say, George doesn't have that, but he's a second lieutenant. George, you're holding the gun the wrong way round. Don't press the trigger. Well, he was signed up to be taught to fly. Did he start flapping his arms? Well, when I say taught to fly, I don't mean taught to fly a plane.

I mean taught to fly military planes. Now, this is only usually offered to people who can already fly a plane. Oh, so he can't... Oh no, of course he can't fly, can he? Yeah, he can't fly. Yeah. So, that was unusual. So, not only has he made second lieutenant, which is very unusual,

he then is put on the pilot training thing, which is very unusual. And then he was given two months off. And that just never happens. Well, it's stressful. He needs a break, right? Yeah. He was given two months off and he spent that time in Florida doing a favour for his dad, who he probably thought, maybe I owe dad one for this.

So I'll go and do that. What he did down in Florida is he worked for his dad's friends campaigning. There's a senatorial race going on. So he goes down there and he helps with the campaign. It's a job. He gets paid some cash. It keeps him busy for the two months before he goes and trains to be a pilot. So off he goes.

Has an all right time. Doesn't take it too seriously. Gets it done and then comes pilot. So off he goes, has an all right time, doesn't take it too seriously, gets it done and then comes back. So time to train. He was one of only 64 who was on this military training course when he signed up. He was the only one who did not already know how to fly and was not from the Air Force or the Navy. Can you imagine the first day of that lesson? and was not from the Air Force or the Navy. Can you imagine the first day of that lesson? Oh.

So, can you, you can see, you must all be familiar with the left quadrilateral phalangemanga? Everyone's like, oh, yes, yes, we know what that means. George Bush just, uh. Well, see, the thing is, and the thing about George is, he's confident. Oh, no. He's carefree. And, yes, he's out of his depth,

but being out of his depth is his depth. He is always out of... That's how he's always felt, drawing all of his school. He's used to this feeling. He's dreaded water his entire life. Yeah. He spent most of his life in classes going, I don't know what the hell's going on,

so why is this any different? But the difference is here, they're not going to make him sit a stupid test, they're going to put him in a plane and he gets to fly a plane, that's cool. So he throws himself into it. This explains everything. Well, according to people he trained with, they all knew who he was, they all knew he was getting preferential treatment, they didn't seem to mind, or at least they don't say so to the journalists asking them,

decades later when he's a famous politician, and they say he did a good job whilst training, and he took to flying in a way that he's never really taken to anything else. That's good. Yeah, this works. Something clicks and he's like, yeah, I can do this. Okay, I don't know what the second quadrilateral flurangula is, or whatever they were talking about in lesson one. Well remembered, by the way. I pay attention in flight school. Yeah, so there he is. He's got to fly. And don't forget, as much as these things do run in families, which they can do, his dad was a fighter pilot in the war, and he was good. Daddy Bush was a good pilot, and it would appear he's passed that on

to his son, because George was able to fly would appear he's passed that on to his son. Because George was able to fly, considering he was the only one with no experience, he does pretty damn good. And not only that, his fellow trainees kind of got on with the guy. He was fun to be around. He liked to party. And so did everyone who was training in the military at the time. So, yeah, this is great. It became very obvious to everyone that George had

connections. If it wasn't obvious already, him being in the Champagne unit, it became even more obvious when he got a call from his father one day. He was given special leave to fly to Washington, D.C. to go on a date with President Nixon's daughter. Ah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah yeah that is a preferential treatment but also got to be one of the scariest dates in history yeah now the way the way my life's worked out i can't say i've gone on many like dates where i don't know the person at all when i've gone on the date uh but when i have done terrifying what i didn't have to do was get on a plane, travel halfway across the country and pick the person up from the White House. Yeah, I guess that's a bit of a, intimidating might be the word. So Daddy Bush has arranged for George to go on this date with Trisha Nixon.

So off he goes and he picks up Trisha. Have a guess. How well does it go? Score the date out of 10. I think the date probably went quite well. Or he just crumbled or there there was just Trish like, I can't believe we're doing this. Yeah, it did not go well. Oh, OK.

It did not go well at all. I had hopes. Yeah, the two did not take to each other at all. George was very nervous and knocked over a glass of red wine all over the table. We've all done that. I literally have done that before. It wasn't like a full-on date. I already knew the person for a little bit,

but knocked a glass of red wine all over them. All over their face. And she didn't say she hated me and stormed out. So that was a good sign I took that. She should just send you a text the next day. You owe me one dress. And a glass of wine. Yeah.

No, no, it's fine. It's all good. I thought about that when I read that George had done the same. We've all been there. You knock over glasses of wine. But it's not good, is it? You're there at a gala celebrating the Apollo 8 crew is what they went to. So it's a big social event.

So there's Tricia Nixon, the daughter of the president, in her fine dress. And here's this southern idiot comes along and knocks a glass of red wine all over her which is i'm guessing is how george was internalizing this i don't know how trisha was reacting to this but i know what i read about george's reaction to the date which was just feeling really uncomfortable looking back on it he dropped her off at the white house immediately after the dinner ended there was no hanging around around afterwards. And he left the White House thinking, well, that was my time at the White House then. That's fun. Never see this place again.

Yeah. Apparently when he actually went there as president for the first time, he was thinking about that date. Really? All those years later. So you know this date was a bad date you've just become the president of the most powerful country in the world and all you can think about is whilst cringing that time you knocked the glass of red wine over your date yeah so anyway oh a couple of other things that happened so he tried to calm his nerves at one point, so he lit up a cigarette, and Trisha just very coolly looked at him and asked him to put that cigarette out.

I was so hoping you'd say he accidentally set fire to a face or something. Just hair gone. The dress would have gone up in flames, but fortunately it was soggy from the red wine. So he was saved from that embarrassment. Anyway, George heads back to Texas, a defeated man. I can't believe all this. What aren't you believing? Just how his life so far is one success story to the next? Is it just going swimmingly well for him? I still can't see.

How he becomes president? Yeah. We'll get there. Anyway, he graduates from flight training. Out of the 65 who were there, only 24 other people graduate. So there you go. He's not bottom of the list in this one. He graduates. This is something he does well. Out of 24, which one was he? Well, you either graduate or you don't.

You can either do it or you can't. So the rest dropped out. So, yeah, it's a tick in the wing column for George, definitely Daddy Bush was there to give a talk at the graduation And he was the one who gave out the silver wings So George was given his silver wings by his father Which was a very proud moment for the two of them Anyway, George

Wait, when you say silver wings Do you mean like a little badge or like actual massive angel wings? Well I read it and I assumed the badge that they wear on their uniform. But now you say it, I hope it's massive wings that all Air Force people are secretly given. But they don't tell the public. They get them out in special cases. Yeah, anyway. So, George, he's graduated.

He can now go to Vietnam and he can now go and fly So what does he do? Go on holiday No, he doesn't go to Vietnam, that's for damn sure No, no, George isn't going to Vietnam Instead, he goes on another training course This time to fly fighter jets Ooh, even more fun

They're faster Oh yeah, yeah, this is top line he's now in the best planes that the military has to offer is he is top gun yeah anyway the military released this statement for the papers about his first solo flight because remember his grandfather was in the senate his father's now in congress so there's enough interest here. The military goes, yeah, we can release this statement. George Walker Bush is one... Sorry, it should be done in an old-timey way in my voice. George Walker Bush is one member of the younger generation

who doesn't get his kicks from pot or hashish or speed. Oh, he gets high all right, but not from narcotics. As far as kicks are concerned, Lieutenant Bush gets his from the roaring afterburner of the F-102.57. The plane name probably is said smoother in the announcement. It rolls off the tongue. It's beautiful. That's a really weird statement.

Our pilots aren't on drugs. They get high in the air. Yeah, I mean, the whole idea is good old American boy. He's there. He's getting high on life by being a patriot and doing his stuff in the air. Yeah, I mean, the whole idea is good old American boy, he's there, he's getting high on life by being a patriot and doing his stuff for the military. The irony, obviously, here is that George did get his kicks from flying fighter jets, yes.

But he also got a lot of kicks from drinking and drugs, because by this point, he was taking a lot of drugs and he was drinking a lot. So Bill Clinton has a bit of a reputation for going through his hippie phase. It would appear he had nothing on George Bush. Wow. Oh, yes. Because George Bush, by this point, was partying.

He had no way slowed down his party lifestyle after leaving school, but he now had access to a lot more hardcore stuff. I say hardcore. We're not talking like really hardcore stuff. But he certainly was smoking a lot of weed, drinking a lot more hardcore stuff. I say hardcore, we're not talking like really hardcore stuff, but he certainly was smoking a lot of weed, drinking a lot of alcohol, and possibly experimenting with some other stuff as well. Now, after six months of this,

he was released from active duty. So he's trained with the fighter jets. He can now fly one of those. From now on, all he had to do was turn up to drill once a month, and that would count as serving in the military, so he doesn't need to go to Vietnam. So there you go. He's done it.

Now again, keep going back to Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton got criticised a lot for dodging the draft, because he did dodge the draft. Arguably, I'd say George Bush dodged the draft just as much. And so did Donald Trump. And so did Donald Trump. If you could dodge it, you would dodge it. Exactly. You just take

whatever avenue you've got. George Bush had rich, well-connected parents so he was able to dodge it that way. Bill Clinton was able to use his intelligence as a ticket somewhere and Donald Trump was able to use the money that his family had. They used slightly different things to each other but they all

avoid it in one way or another. And if I could have, I would have as well. Yeah. The difference is, of course, George Bush comes out of it with some silver wings and a sharp military suit that he can now officially wear because he was in the military. So that's not going to shadow him as much

as we'll see in a moment. It is a little bit dodgy. Anyway, with little else to do, he heads off to his father to do some campaigning there, because obviously this is a time in his life where his father was doing lots of campaigning, a lot. He quickly became his father's last minute stand-in, so if Daddy Bush was busy, his son would turn up. George had very similar mannerisms and a way of speaking, so it was almost as good as the real thing. Just send little George there.

He's 30 years younger. Yeah, he'll be fine. Anyway, he moves into an exclusive apartment complex in Houston. Now, these apartments were set around six swimming pools. And this apartment complex is where the young and up-and-coming youth of Texas were hanging out. This is the start of the episode. So imagine a chicken and a cone and a sofa on the roof because someone's just taken them up there. It sounds like this was just 24-hour partying.

It was the rich youth. They had nothing else to do. They'd managed to get out of going to Vietnam. So what are they going to do? They're going to barbecue all day. They're going to drink by the pool. So that's what they do. I wonder at which point they realise, like,

the pool water, even though it's fully chlorinated, it's getting a bit green, a bit swampy. I don't know. They're all very rich. They can probably afford for it to be changed. Just someone running past, I can't see anymore. Anyway, George is having a great time. He starts drinking

like he's never drank before. I mean, he liked to party before, but this time we're talking full alcoholic behaviour, constantly drinking all the time. There was bad news for his father at this point as well. He had failed to get into the Senate. And this is when he was offered the UN post.

Career's over for him. So as we saw, that means Daddy Bush and Barbara go to New York. So this means George is left to his own devices in Texas. And he enters what he later called his nomadic years. Oh. Yeah.

I mean, it wasn't all crazy spirals. He applied for Texas law school to begin with. Okay. Assuming his name would get him in, obviously. I mean, he got into Yale based on his name. It doesn't matter that he has no credentials whatsoever. He was utterly shocked when they turned him down. How dare you? I'm George W. Bush. Well, he didn't say that. What he did is he had family members contact friends who had connections to the people who were in charge. However, those people who had put in a word for George

soon received a word back, which essentially said, I'm sure George is a very bright young boy with a great potential future, but it won't be at this school. Yeah, so I mean, it's just not good enough. So he then starts to spiral. He just drinks solidly, hangs out by the pool. He's smoking weed. He's partying even more.

He doesn't need the money. He's got plenty of money from his grandfather that was put aside for his education. Well, he's no longer being educated and he still has plenty of that money left. So he just starts spending money on all the fun things that someone in their early 20s would want to spend money on. You will not be surprised that it's not long after this that he gets someone pregnant. Right.

Yeah, now, obviously George does not want to settle down whatsoever, so he phones a couple of people up. Obviously, where he is, abortions are frowned upon, but they are able to find an abortion and then cuts off all contact with the woman and never sees her ever again. So this was very much seen by George as a mistake that he wants to sweep under the carpet.

Excellent. Those conservative morals. Oh, yes. So bright and glaring. Well, you might have noticed I've not talked much about politics so far. As in, I mean, he goes off and he helps campaign, but he doesn't seem to talk much about politics himself

or his views. He doesn't seem to care. He doesn't seem to care. You're absolutely right, because what does he care about? Partying. He carries on partying. Now, again, I looked into trying to find some fun stories. Oh, he's partying lots.

What kind of fun stories did he get up to? Again, couldn't really find much. You get the feeling that this wasn't fun partying. This was more grinding his way to rock bottom partying. Yeah. This is the suddenly snapping awake, hungover, next to the pool, not remembering what day of the week it was kind of partying.

Yeah. So he's not actually having a good time, even though it sounds like he really should be. His life became so chaotic that his parents got word of it in New York and they were very worried about him. They pressured him to move out of that apartment complex, which was just a big party, move somewhere where you can just get a bit of a break from that. Yeah. So in a move that can only be described as somewhat controlling, I would say, Yeah. So in a move that can only be described as somewhat controlling, I would say, his parents organized somewhere for him to live. Okay, not too bad. And then organized a roommate for him who could keep an eye on him. This is Bill, Bill Clinton.

Well, it was someone who he went to Yale with, so it wasn't a stranger, but they contacted one of his friends and said, do you want to move in with our son? We need someone to keep an eye on him. They encouraged him to go and do that. It gives you a sense of just how off the rails George was getting at this point that his parents felt they had to do it. But it didn't stop there. Daddy Bush then got his son a job, a managerial job in a large agricultural firm. No experience, be a manager. Yeah, exactly. Now, George, who was trying to turn his life around at this point, I've had enough of partying, let's actually grow up a bit. Oh, he was not impressed with this, however. He said to one

friend, I'm now wearing a coat and tie and selling chicken. He lasted a year and then he gives up and quits. He saw the job as beneath him. He was a bush, damn it. He wasn't going to be a manager in an agricultural firm He deserves better So he goes back to the drink and the drugs This affects his flying He's learned how to fly the fighter jets He does turn up for his military service every now and again

Because he's got to, to keep up with tents But his drinking and his drug taking Means he's unable to land the jet a couple of times They have to like bail him out yeah he's he really starts to struggle it gets a very murky at this point uh it's hard to pick apart and this is people who were looking for dirt on him professionally couldn't work this out so what hope did i have george stopped showing up at the the texan national air. So he just stops turning up. Around the time, mandatory drug tests start to come in. So you get the feeling maybe he was found positive in a drug test, and to keep it quiet,

he was just told, just don't turn up anymore, and that way we won't be able to test you. So George simply doesn't fly or turn up to drills anymore. The idea of military service just goes away. Now, he should be doing it. He should be doing the bare minimum, but he should be doing it, and he's not. Anyway, Daddy Bush gets in contact once more. Okay, you're going off the rails again. How about you go on a campaign? One of my friends is trying to get into the Senate in Alabama.

Go and help him out. Now, George is always quite light, helping out with campaigns. It was quite a fun thing to do. Daddy Bush had already asked his friend, can you please have my son? He's going off the rails. In fact, I'll quote him, George W is in and out of trouble seven days a week, will you have him down there with you? So Daddy Bush is begging his friends, can you look after my son whilst I'm in New York, please? Yeah, anyway, George turns up, Alabama, to do the campaigning. He turns up in his cowboy boots that he wore by this point. He liked his cowboy boots.

And so he walks in, puts his boots on the desk, and just starts boasting to everyone about how much he drank the previous night. That's how he introduces himself to everyone on the campaign staff. Another worker on the campaign trail simply said that George knew he had privilege, which I think is a very diplomatic way of saying he was a bit of an arse. But there you go. Anyway, the campaign was won,

and George heads back to Houston. By this point, his father and his mother were living up in Washington, and all the Bush children head up for Christmas. 26-year-old George, so he's 26 now, drives to the house one night with his 16-year-old brother in the car, absolutely steaming drunk. So drunk that when they arrive at the house, he drives into the driveway and smashes into

all of the trash cans. He then staggers out the car, goes inside and challenges his father to a fight. So fun Christmas. You might start to see a pattern at this point yeah george like all the best cowboys has daddy issues yes he tries to follow in his father's footsteps either by choice or people forcing it upon him and it plays on his mind a lot and he also wants to pick a fight with his father who he idolizes i mean it's textbook textbook stuff here. And it really seems like he's being there, like he's being trying to force into that mould,

but that's just not him. Yeah, it's not him. You could almost say the worst thing for him to be would be a president. To just follow his father's footsteps his whole life. Yeah, you could argue that. Anyway, Daddy Bush, by this point, despairing. My son's

drunkenly driven into the trash cans and tried to fight me. What do we do with him? So he puts in another call, this time to a friend who was running a scheme to help underprivileged children in Houston. Now, having enough of his spoiled son, Daddy Bush wants George to see what normal people's lives were like. So, go and work with that scheme for a while. George reluctantly agrees. I'll quote him. My job gave me a glimpse of the world I'd never seen. It was tragic, heartbreaking, and uplifting all at the same time. I saw a lot of poverty.

I saw children who could not read, and they were way behind in school. I also saw good and decent people working to try and help lift their kids out of their terrible circumstances. So for the first time in his life, he actually sees what normal people like, because he's not surrounded by the elite of America, and he finds it quite shocking. This is almost like the beginning of Buddhism here. Well, we'll see if it continues. Now, this is one version of why he went to work for this scheme.

There is another version, because there's some suggestion that it wasn't just Daddy Bush getting annoyed at his son. According to the workers there, George wasn't an employee and he also wasn't a volunteer. Because you volunteer for a place like that. They have strict rules and yeah, he just turned up. But he had to sign in and out in a way that no one else had to. So the speculation at the scheme was this rich boy is doing some quiet community service. That's what it seems like.

So there is some speculation, but I must say it is not confirmed that maybe he was picked up on some kind of drug possession charge or something. And it was very quietly dealt with. So this was actually his community service. But we don't know. It's not ever been confirmed,

but maybe it was. There was definitely speculation at the time something didn't seem quite right we'll send him an email and see yeah yeah i'm sure he'll answer anyway by this point uh perhaps george was trying to turn things around because without telling anyone he applied for harvard business school and he wasn't going to use his family to get in he was just going to apply for himself. He later admitted he thought there was a chance he'd get rejected and it would just be embarrassing for him. So he didn't tell anyone. And guess what? Got accepted. Of course he got accepted. He's a bush. Take this big lump of cash and accept me. Yeah. So he was honorably discharged from the Texan National Guard, even though he wasn't actually turning up for it anymore. He was honorably discharged, which is a little bit dodgy, to say the least.

Privileged. Anyway, George approached Harvard Business School just like he had Yale, which is to say he swaggered around a lot in his cowboy boots. He did the bare minimum and he was soon out of his depth. One professor said that he did stand out in one way, because he said that almost all students studying at Harvard Business School were conservative. Kind of goes with the nature of the course. Yeah. But George apparently went another level when it came to his empathy. And I'll quote the professor here.

Unlike most of the others in the class, George Bush came across as totally lacking in compassion with no sense of history. Even amongst Republicans, his kind was rare. He had no shame about his views, and that's when the rest of the class started treating him like a clown. I didn't judge him to be stupid, just spoilt and undisciplined. Yeah, so again, he just messes about and does not take to it. But interestingly, you get the idea in business school,

he's come in and he's saying things along the lines of, well, why don't you sack all the workers if they're not working hard enough? Kill the poor, that'll solve the problem. No more poor people. Yeah, that kind of didn't, not really well thought through, but just here's a simple answer. Let's not worry about how it would actually affect people's human lives. You get the feeling it was a little bit like that.

He was struggling to see the nuance. Anyway, his lack of effort was noticed. He graduates after a couple of years, and then he waits to be given a job. He's graduated Harvard Business School, damn it. I mean, he didn't do well, but he graduated, so everyone knows what happens. It's Harvard Business School. That's an automatic high-paying job. After 53 interviews, he receives no job. 53 interviews, wow. One classmate said, and I quote, he is the only Harvard Business School graduate that I know of

who has ever left there without a goddamn job. How did he become president? We'll get to it, Jamie. We will. Although you could probably guess how he became president. How's he done everything so far? Ah, just, yeah. So, no high-flying job for him with the fancy firms of New York or the like.

So what's he going to do? Drink and take drugs? He really does want to do something at this point. He wants to get a job. A few years has passed. He's had enough of the partying. He needs to do something. His father, remember, who rejected the fancy bank jobs, got his stick and his handkerchief.

Remember? Oh, could he start his own business? So he's not being hired, he can just do his own thing. Oh, exactly. What is he going to do? He's going to follow in the footsteps of his father, who he so often disappointed. He was going to go to Texas

and make it in the oil industry. So he heads down to Texas with nothing but the shirt on his back and a huge pile of cash and a book full of contacts that his father had given him, just like his father. Excuse me, sir, your butler here, would you care for your Texas tuxedo or would you care for your southern cape whilst I drag your chest of gold through the Is it the same butler? I'd like to think it's the same butler. Just really old now. And really annoyed.

So, these contacts that his father had given him set him up an office rent-free so he could start a business. No start-up costs for Bush. Oh no. No, and any good capitalist society would do that. It's free, it's for you, of course. This is America.

Anyway, just like his father, he was going to be a landman. This is someone who researched land titles and mineral rights, and then he bought land off people on behalf of oil companies. It's what his father did. It's what he's going to do. Yeah. His life was not as turned around as his parents and perhaps him himself hoped, however,

because he certainly hadn't kicked the drinking. He was soon arrested for drunk driving. Now, that sounds bad, but then you remember this is Texas in the 70s. Can you imagine how drunk you must be to be arrested for drunk driving in Texas in the 70s? Your car's like upside down in a spruce tree. Yeah.

With a cow on top. Yes. How is that even possible? Just him with his arm around the cow, both of them singing songs, swinging out of a whiskey bottle. Anyway, that happened. But that's by the by. He has started up his own business.

And it's going well enough that he starts up Arbusto, which is the Spanish word pronounced incredibly badly for the word bush. Yes, I mean, that's pronounced differently. I wonder if it's any more accurate. Anyway, this is his own oil business. And he was going to invest in land. This was this was him doing what his father did. He's 31 at this point. Life is easy, but it's not like going great. But he's getting somewhere. Then a Texan congressman of 44 years announced his retirement. Now, Texas at the time was a Democrat stronghold, but a Southern Democrat stronghold. And as we've seen through several episodes now, this is the point where conservatives were starting to head

to the border, the Republicans. So when this congressman retired, both Democrats and Republicans thought that the seat was up for grabs. And then George Bush, surprising absolutely everyone, suddenly announced that he was running for Congress. Are you sure? Is this really the job for you? I'll quote him. My friends were a little surprised why I was doing this, but at the time, Jimmy Carter was president, and he was trying to control the natural gas prices. And I felt that the United States was heading towards a European-style socialism.

So he had to do his bit to stop it. Now, opposing European-style socialism was like the buzzwords at the time. It's what both the Texan Democrats and the Texan Republicans were loudly talking about. So this wasn't this new idea from Bush. He wasn't bringing anything new to the table. You get the feeling that he was doing this to keep up with his father. Yeah. His father got into politics after doing the oil business. So he's got an oil business now. So what's next? You kind of get the feeling that's what's going on. Yeah. So he's got an old business now, so what's next?

You kind of get the feeling that's what's going on. Slight problem. George obviously has very little experience. Now, we have come across this before, but usually the person going for Congress has experience in something, like business or the military. You can kind of see in George's head, he probably thinks he has got experience in that.

I have an old business. It's called asbestos. Yeah. That said, perhaps he did have more experience than. I have an old business. It's called asbestos. Yeah. That said, perhaps he did have more experience than some people gave him credit for. He can fly a plane. I can't fly a plane, Rob. Can you? It's not that.

He did actually have political experience. It's just you might not have really thought about it. When he's campaigning and stuff. He has spent a lot of his life just nipping off and campaigning. Yeah. He's been doing it for a bit of extra life just nipping off and campaigning. He's been doing it for a bit of extra cash, not that he needs it. More, he's been doing it for something to do or to repay favours to his father. But he's been doing it and he's enjoyed doing it.

And actually, he was fairly good at it when he wasn't blind drunk. So he does have experience on campaign trials. Can you imagine a drunken knock on the door? Yeah. So maybe this isn't as ridiculous as you first think. Maybe he did have a chance here. And obviously the most important thing he had was contacts. His grandfather used to be a senator. His father used to be a congressman.

He's got contacts high up in the Republican Party. So why not run, he thinks. And this is not the only life-changing thing he does at this time, because literally a week after he announces his candidacy, he goes to a friend's barbecue and he meets Laura Walsh. The two of them had grown up in Midland, but they didn't really know each other. At one point, they'd actually been in the same year at the same school, just because of the way that they'd moved around. But they had very little memory of each other. At one point, they'd actually been in the same year at the same school, just because of the way that they'd moved around, but they had very little memory of each other. So it's like, I kind

of vaguely remember you must have been in one of the classes or something. So they had a shared background, but they didn't really know each other, and they hit it off immediately. Laura, to begin with, was concerned that George was going to be a bit of a pompous political bore. After all, look, his family are a big political family,

and he's just going to talk about politics all the time. He's going to be pretentious. But no, he's not. He seemed down to earth. He seemed fun. He liked to laugh. He liked to have a joke. He actually seemed like an all right guy.

So they get on like a house on fire. Things move very quickly. They dated for just a few months, and then they were married in 77. Laura Bush. Laura Bush. It was a relatively small wedding for such a rich family. It was held in a church in Midland, only 75 guests. Oh, that's very small.

Yeah, and they didn't have, like, huge bridesmaids or big speeches or anything. It was just a fairly small family affair. They get married. George's siblings were surprised. Laura seemed really sensible. Nice. Steady going. I mean, that's code word for a bit dull. No, no, I don't get

the feeling it's a bit dull. I think it's code word for you're usually hanging around with crazy party animals. You found someone who seems down to earth and, like, has everything steady in their life. That's a good sign, though. That's love.

That's not, you know, you change your life for... Yeah, exactly. This seemed very unlike their wild older brother. And they really hoped that Laura was going to be a good influence on him. Yeah, stop drinking, please. Yeah. Anyway, they moved to a house that George owned in Midland, and they went on the campaign trial. Remember he

denounced that he was running? Oh, yeah. Yeah, just before. So off they go. George is having the time of his life. He's finally found what he wants to do. In a couple of years, he has gone from being frustrated by the snobs at Harvard. I hated it at Yale. Why was he at Harvard? Why was he doing that again? He hated it. And now suddenly, he

owns a admittedly small, but it's his oil company. He's got a wife and he's on the campaign trail for himself. He loves campaigning. His job was meeting people and chatting. He can do that. Yeah. He can do that far better than his dad can.

Something he was aware of. Daddy Bush struggled with the campaigning. George loved every moment of it. He liked to throw himself into company. So he just liked to have a laugh, have a joke, talk to people about what's going on. Do you know what's striking me about this? Like, I've watched quite a few interviews with George Bush,

post-presidency, and he does come across as so likeable in interviews. Like, every single time, you kind of go, oh, he's lovely. You'd want to have a beer with him, wouldn't you? Well, in interviews. Like, every single time, you kind of go, oh, he's lovely. You'd want to have a beer with him, wouldn't you? Well, probably not. Probably, possibly not. But I get exactly what you mean, yeah.

It's, and this is what's working for him. He's got charisma. But not, not like ridiculous. Just like, yeah, like chatty, jovial. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I get that. So, if he's going to win this seat, he's first got to fight against his own party, obviously, in the primaries.

And this is the period of history where the Reaganite right was on the rise. Yes. They're from the right of the party. George very much positioned himself, as his father and his grandfather had, in the moderate wing of the party. So Bush fought hard and was doing well. Reagan himself donated funds to the man he was running against. So Reagan did not want this little Bush on the scene. This was a man named Reese. The Reese campaign released Bush's birth certificate at one point to prove that he

was born in New Haven, not Texas. But this is a sentence I've said before in his father's episode. Bush realized his father was attacked in this way, so he just used his father's defense line, which was, I quote, no, I wasn't born in Texas. I wanted to be close to my mother that day, which is exactly the quote that his father had said. It's a good comeback, so he used it as well. To the surprise of many in the Republican Party, Bush wins the primary.

He just comes across as a likable young chap. But now was the general election against the Democratic nominee, and this was going to be, to put it bluntly, impossible. Texas was a Democratic stronghold. The registered Democrats were six to one against the Republicans. The previous congressman, who had been there for 44 years, had been a Democrat. Now, as much as conservatives were going red um this was still a blue state and quite got that far yeah it's weird to hear that isn't it yeah anyway uh the bush family rallied it's going to be an uphill fight but he's actually doing quite well daddy bush was hugely impressed his son was actually doing something and achieving

something so the bush family rally around calls are made to certain people. They very quickly raise $400,000 compared to the Democratic campaign that raised $175,000. So despite this, like I say, however, it was impossible to win. Bush won Midland, where he was from, but the other 16 counties he loses. So everything else. Yeah. However, if you look at the total vote, it doesn't look that bad at all. In an impossible race, he lost 53 to 47%. Oh, that's very close.

That is respectable. Yeah. Very respectable. And perhaps George got what he really wanted, because I'm not convinced that he really wanted to be in Congress. What he really wanted was the approval of his father, which he gets. Anyway, he's done that now. He's proved to the world that he's not just this bleep-up who keeps getting drunk and sort of dropping out of college.

Not that he did, but you know what I mean. So let's go to that oil business and make something of it. So back to Arbusto. With his new fame in the state and context, he was finding it fairly simple to grow the business. And this is nothing huge. It's still very small scale in the oil business. But he is growing. But there's something more important than his race to be congressman, because his father that by this point was running to be president. And soon after this, when he fails, he was running to be vice president under Reagan.

So the Bush name is now known nationally. This is enough to give George a bit of a boost. Yeah. Some more people were investing in his company. To begin with, it was the same list of people who were also investing in the Republican presidential campaign. Essentially, Daddy's friends are helping him out. Yeah. But as Daddy Bush

becomes more and more known across the country, George's company starts to stand out as a potential good investment. So other people start getting on board as well. Meanwhile, George and Laura were trying to start a family, but it wasn't working. It got to the point where they started to go down the adoption route. But then all of a sudden, to their delight, Laura gets pregnant. Yay. She soon gives birth to twin girls, Barbara and Jenna, named after the grandmothers. Oh, yeah. So, things are looking good for George. He's got his family. He's got his two girls.

In order to capitalise on the growing recognition of the family name, he changes the name of Arbusto to Bush Exploration Company. Yeah. Yeah, I knew it was gonna get you i mean changing it to changing it to bush makes sense you've got to capitalize on the name you i want to be a fly on the wall when they came up with bush exploration company whether they found it amusing as they did it or whether it was straight-faced we will never know, things change quickly as they often can in business. Some investments into land did not pay off and the company starts to struggle.

Things go from bad to worse and George starts to fear for the future of the company. But again, the family name comes in handy because there was a company from Cincinnati who wanted to expand into the oil and gas industry in Texas. And they saw this business that wasn't doing great, possibly might be going under, but more importantly, was run by the vice president's son. This seemed like a cheap way to buy up some influence, they thought. So, talks take place, and sure enough, the companies merge and become Spectrum 7. George does very well out of this deal.

To begin with, he was in charge of his own business, but it was failing. Bad investments. It wasn't working. Out of this deal, he was made the CEO of this new company. He's got a large salary and he has some consulting fees. Purely because he's the vice president's son. Yeah.

Absolutely blows me away that you can get consulting fees when you're the CEO of the company. But apparently you can. And what did he have to do in return for all of this? Well, just occasionally. Maybe make a phone call or two for his business partners who have just come into business with him. So there you go.

That's the way of business. Splendid. By 85, George is doing very well personally. He was exercising daily, he'd stopped smoking, he was still drinking, but it wasn't a big deal anymore. It wasn't affecting his life. And he also found religion, roughly at this time. Now, the Bush family have always been religious, but it actually started to mean something to George at this point, rather than it just be something that they did. Now, the Bushes were friends with the famous reverend in America,

Billy Graham, who I'll admit I do not know much about. No, I've heard the name. You've heard the name, yeah. Big in the Jesus scene, apparently. Yes, the big JC. I'm sure many of our listeners might know a bit more about him, but we are too pressed for time for me to go down a Billy Graham rabbit hole. Anyway, he visited his parents every single year.

He was a family friend. This year, George happened to be there at the same time and really thought that Billy Graham was onto something. I'll quote him, Billy Graham didn't make you feel guilty, he made you feel loved. Something really spoke to him this time he was talking. The two went for a walk on the beach

and Billy explained to George that he had to stop trying to earn God's love through deeds, but simply accept Christ as the risen Lord. Now, the words resonated with George. Perhaps he was tired of always feeling like he had to do better to earn his parents' approval, and that's not how you should approach your religion as well. You just have to accept Jesus as the Lord, so stop trying to bargain your way into heaven. Something about that spoke to him that day, and he says ever since that point he felt his religion more deeply. So things going well for him personally, but his business starts to plummet again. The cash injection from merging and turning into Spectrum 7 helped for a

while, but unfortunately not much has changed, and it starts all going downhill again. Spectrum 7... Well, of course it hasn't changed. The CEO's the same guy that had a failing company. Of course it hasn't. Yeah, Spectrum 7 faces the same problems as Bush Exploration had. Of course they are. And it now owed 3.1 million and was close to bankruptcy. Staff took a 10% pay cut.

Bush himself took a 25% pay cut. Things were tight. Bush, realising that there's no way out, decided, why don't I just do exactly what I did before? If he could just find a bigger company to merge with, it would have to be an even bigger one this time, he could be saved. All he needed was a company to merge with

who were happy to bail out Spectrum 7 at a loss in exchange for having the son of the vice president owing them a favour. So he put some feelers out. Harcum Oil was found. Harcum Oil was a large Dallas-based company who were expanding rapidly, and they could easily afford to bail out Spectrum 7. They had a lot of cash, and they liked the idea of having a bush.

That could open some doors in the future. One member on the board said he could have been more useful if he had funds, but as far as contacts were concerned, he was terrific. It seemed like George knew everyone in the United States who was worth knowing. Now, it wasn't a straight done deal. The stress of negotiations was getting to George. He starts drinking heavily again, so much that Laura and several of his friends told him he was harming himself. It seemed like a couple of interventions were told him he was harming himself. Like, a couple of interventions were staged at this point. And then one morning, incredibly hung over

in 1986, he wakes up and just decides, that's it, I can't drink anymore. He has really one of those moments where he just goes, this is going to kill me if I carry on. So he just stops. That's good. According to Laura, he was scared that he would one day do something to embarrass his father, so he quit. Again, daddy issues. George himself says it was his growing faith that gave him the strength to quit. Possibly it was a mixture of the two. Anyway, the Harkin deal goes through, but unlike last time, Bush wasn't given a job. He was out.

He would bring political favours to the owners of Harkin, one of which, by the way, was billionaire George Soros. Yeah. But he would not be running the company. George Soros himself was very open about this deal. I'll quote him here. We were buying political influence. That was it. They didn't think it was a good company.

It wasn't worth any money. They were making a loss buying it, but it got them political favours. See, George Soros is a business person, so he knows what he's doing. Yes, that's a good point. And obviously in charge of all the Illuminati and, you know, controlling the world. Oh, yeah, yeah, of course he also does that. On the side, you know, at weekends. Yeah, yeah, of course.

Anyway, in the end, those who had invested heavily in Spectrum 7 lost out. It did not go well. Bush did okay, though. Of course he did. Yeah, he was bailed out, and he made a lot of money from it. Being out of a job, George did what he often did. He headed off to his father's to help him campaign, because by this time it's 88,

and Daddy Bush is going to run for president. In the scene covered in his father's episode, a man named Lee Atwater was hoping to run the campaign. Atwater worked for a company who was also working with Bob Doyle, the opposition. Yeah. So George, when meeting Atwater, asked how the Bushes could trust him. Atwater replied, are you serious? And George said, I'm damn serious, pal.

In our family, if you go to war, we want you completely on our side, he said in his Texas drawl and his cowboy boots on. Atwater. And aviators. Yeah. Atwater told George, well, come to Washington, help me campaign, keep an eye on me. As he later said to a friend, I'd rather have him pissing out of the tent than in. You get a feeling Atwater did this somewhat reluctantly as a way to get George off his back. But actually, the two really hit it off once George is in Washington. George is given an office between Atwater and Roger Iles, who you might recognise the name. He was

in charge of Fox News when it starts. Yes. Yeah. So George was given no formal title during the campaign. He was the president's son, or at least he will be the president's son when Daddy Bush wins. You don't need a title. He and Atwater, like I say, they become very close. They work very well on the campaign. To begin with, George was a stand-in for his father, just like normal. But increasingly, he became the point of contact with the evangelical wing of the party. George's rising faith himself, he finds it very easy to talk to this wing of the party. His father often found it difficult, found them a little bit too extreme.

George, however, George, however, without a strong political philosophy himself, found he could talk to them easily. So he soon got a reputation as a sunny Corleone, a fiercely loyal, if somewhat dim, son of the family. That was how he was seen on the campaign trail.

Full of enthusiasm, maybe not. Certainly has his uses. seen on the campaign trail. Full of enthusiasm. Certainly has his uses. He's no Freddo. Yeah. But yeah, he's not the Don. Anyway, as we saw, his father went on to win the presidential election and George was very much part of that. He did a decent job. But now he has to decide what to do with his life. He's out of the oil business. So what's he gonna do? There's a lot of speculation about him getting into politics, maybe. And privately, he was thinking about it. Publicly, he was denying it, however, saying he's gonna have to develop his own personality if he was going to do it. But then he receives a phone call from his former partner in Spectrum 7.

Did you know that the Texas Rangers were going up for sale? Ever wanted to buy a baseball team? Yes, it's something I've always wanted to do. I always talk about it. I think I'd be great at owning a baseball team, thinks Bush. I could manage them as well. Be CEO. They'll last forever. We'll get to that in a moment, because actually he doesn't do that to his credit.

But he loves the idea of owning a baseball team. So he and his family move to Dallas. They build a ranch so they can live in. It's a nice big ranch. It's got a circular driveway. His daughters insist upon a swimming pool that he's more than happy to build for them. It's all very nice.

Here's your spade. Start digging. The plan was twofold. So move to Dallas. And publicly, he told people he was going to buy the Texan Rangers. Privately, however, the plan was to become the governor of Texas. However, Bush sometimes liked to chat, and his tongue got away from him, and soon enough everyone knew both his plans, his public and his secret plan.

His mother was sceptical. His mother publicly said that he would soon get distracted by baseball, and he would forget about the governorship. George was a bit offended by what his mother said. I felt a bit put out. How dare you? I've been telling everyone I want to be the governor. I say in a really loud voice,

I want to own the baseball team, but I'm not actually going for the Texas governorship. Yeah, well, he's going to do both, dammit. He's going to prove everyone wrong. So you might be wondering, how easy is it to buy a baseball team? Rob, how easy is it to buy a baseball team? Rob, how easy is it to buy a baseball team? Well, I'll ask you one question.

Is your father the President of the United States? Not anymore. No, no. So you're going to find it quite difficult. George found it nice and easy, though. You'll be pleased to know. The team was being sold by a self-made millionaire in failing health. The price was 80 million. Bush has

money. He does not have 80 million that's a lot he needed investors surely oh yes exactly does he have investors of course he does his dad's the president so using the connections him and his business partner a man named dewitt raised 40 million they've got half of it not enough okay more feelers put out. Family connections then convince a billionaire friend of theirs to chip in another $35 million. It was sold to Bush and DeWitt for $75 million. Bush now owns a baseball team. Huzzah.

Well, he's one of the share. He's a co-owner, though, surely. Oh, yeah, it's not him outright, but it's him and DeWitt, those two owners. Yeah, I guess they've got a bigger stake. Yeah, he loves it. Absolutely loves it. And, as you alluded to, what he didn't do was micromanage. He realised he didn't know baseball as well as the experts who ran the club,

so he didn't try and run the club. No, no, you should hold the bat like this instead. No, he didn't do that. But what he did do is he got involved in any way he could. It became his obsession for a few years. And his mother's prediction came absolutely true. He announced he was no longer going to run for governor in 1990. He was having far too much fun hanging out at the baseball club,

going to the games, telling everyone that he owned the Texan Rangers. So it was at this time that Bush made a very lucky financial move. He sold all of his shares in Harkin that he had got from the merger. He sold all of his shares for $850,000. So there you go. He suddenly gets $850,000. Purely coincidentally, by the way, eight days later, Harkin reported their financials for the quarter, and they reported a huge loss, and the value of the shares halved overnight. So it was very lucky that Bush impulsively sold all his shares one week earlier, wasn't it? Yeah, almost an uncanny awareness. Yeah.

Now, again, a bit like a couple of things I've mentioned, there's no proof of insider trading here, but let's be honest, this is very suspicious. Yeah, I mean, I'm not going to put myself up to a lawsuit, but yes. It raises questions, shall we say. Yeah.

There's a slight shadow, slight pall on the acquisition of the selling of stocks. Still, Bush is happy. He's got all his money. A ton of cash. Yeah. He's rich. He owns a baseball team. He's got all his money. Ton of cash. Yeah. He's rich. He owns a baseball team.

He spends most of his time at the club watching the games. Life is good. He gets a call from his dad, the president. What's the opinion of me down there in Texas? What are all the important people saying behind doors? So George does a bit of digging for his father. Not good. Not good, Dad.

Sorry. The economy's struggling and people thought it was time for a change. It was looking like his father was going to be a one-term president. Now, I'm not going to cover all of that because we've already covered it, but George could do nothing but watch his father lose to that sleazy Bill Clinton fella. However, his father's loss did something for George. It focused him again on politics. Because he realised, actually, he was missing politics and if his dad stops being the president he wouldn't be involved at all in politics. He'd no longer get those phone calls

asking him things. I've just realised it's like, within eight years, he becomes president. We are only eight years away from him being president at this point. That's crazy. Yes. Because he is nothing. He's just a baseball club yes yes how does he become president well let's find out shall we although i should say we're not

getting to him becoming president in this episode uh we'll get fairly close we've not got much longer left in this one anyway his father stops being president but he wants to be in politics still so you know what he is going to run for governor. Not just him, by the way. His brother Jeb also announces that he's going to run to become the Florida governor. Ooh. Yeah. So you've got the two Bush boys. Ooh.

Ooh, is this ringing a bell, is it? No, but I've made a connection. Made a connection. If Jeb Bush is successful, this could be problematic. We will see. Jeb is seen by the family as the more serious and competent of the two. George was always the wild card. Jeb was more sensible.

But George didn't let that put him off. He was the president's son. He was called George Bush. He could win this. Is Jeb short for anything? Uh, Jebathia, maybe? Jebary? Jeb, Jebason?

You know, I've never thought to look if Jeb is short for something. It's just Jeb. Jeb Annual? Uh, yeah. I don't know. Jeb, Jebison? You know, I've never thought to look if Jeb is short for something. It's just Jeb. Jeb Annual. Uh, yeah. I don't know. Jeb. Sorry. I mean, I could look it up, but let's just speculate.

And, uh... I like Jeb Annual. Or Jeb Anaya. Jeb Anaya. Yeah. Okay. One of those, probably. Right.

It's probably something really obvious, like Steve or something. Anyway, less eager for him to become governor was his wife, Laura. Laura Bush is no Hillary Clinton. She did not want to be a power couple. She did not want to work with her husband to gain influence in politics. She saw George's political ambitions more as a hobby of his and an annoying one at that. She made him promise,

OK, if you're going to campaign, you will be back here every single evening and I am not going to be dragged into this campaign. We are going to have a relatively normal life. So George agrees to this and to his credit, he keeps that up. He was back every single evening during the campaign. Laura did a couple of little speeches,

but it was very little to do with politics and she was able to stay out of it mostly as well. The primary was very quick. It's been described as the quickest primary in Texas in history, because as soon as George phoned up some others who were high up in the Republican Party, who were likely to win, they all dropped out immediately. No one was going to run against the ex-president's son yeah it's like oh no no if george is running we drop out okay you can have this george it's a name with weight yeah so exactly one year before election day he publicly announces he is running and he says i am not running for governor because i am george bush's son i'm running because i am jenna and barbara's

father which is nice yeah i would yeah i mean he's going to win because he am Jenna and Barbara's father. Which is nice. Yeah. I mean, he's going to win because he's George Bush's son and not because he is Barbara and Jenna's father, but that's not why he was running. People say, is Jenna and Barbara? I don't know. But we'll vote for him anyway. He was up against incumbent governor Anne Richards,

a governor who was known across the country. Not all governors have national recognition, but she did. She was well-liked and she was expected to win. However, she made several mistakes in the campaign. Mainly, she came across as entitled and annoyed by Bush. One thing highlights this. She'd been fighting really hard for educational reform in Texas. Much needed educational reform in Texas.

They were doing one of the worst in the countries. And at this time, different areas of Texas got different amounts of funding for their schools. Essentially, if you lived in a rich area, your school had more money because... Yeah, of course. Just the way that it worked. If you lived in a poor area, the school had less money.

It was incredibly unfair. So Richards had been working for years on this to try and get the richer areas to give some of their money to the poorer areas to level the playing field in education. It was known as the Robin Hood scheme. Yeah, and it's a win-win for the entire state. Why would you not do that? Well, Bush decided, this is perfect.

This sounds like that European socialism to me. Let's use this to attack her. So he does. He attacks her. And you like that European socialism to me. Let's use this to attack her. So he does. He attacks her. And you're in Texas. It works. Frustrated Richards makes a comment about failing a vote at this time. And I quote,

You work like a dog. You do well. The test scores are up. The kids are looking better. The dropout rates are down. And all of a sudden, you've got some jerk who's running around for public office telling everyone it's a sham. She was frustrated. Bush stayed calm and made a joke about the last time he was called a jerk he was in fourth grade and he didn't agree with the kid then and he doesn't

agree with the statement now and everyone went oh he can take the offence turn it around turn it into a joke what a charming guy unlike that nasty Richard. He rose in the polls. George, who always found details hard, shall we say, stuck to the generals. One reporter commented, if you asked him what the time was, he would probably reply, we must teach our children to read. Which I really like.

That's really funny. Yeah. And it worked. Richard knew what she was talking about. She was an accomplished politician, but she did not come across as likeable. This Bush, President's son, seems like a good guy. I've seen him on TV.

He kind of comes across as likeable, doesn't he? You could get a beer with him. But don't, because he'll go crazy. And he owns the Rangers, don't you know? Baseball. I like baseball. Local business. By refusing...

Small local business. By refusing to get into details, mainly because he struggled with the details, people just painted their own picture of what his political beliefs were. It is very hard to find out what his political beliefs are. You kind of get to the opinion eventually that he doesn't really have any clear ones. Maybe I'm being unfair there, but I certainly didn't see much to indicate that he has strong how political opinions. Anyway, in the end, he wins comfortably.

Again, he proves that there is one thing he knows how to do in his campaign, and he does it. His brother, the darling of his parents, loses in Florida. Oh, does it? Okay. Yeah. Now, you obviously know he does become governor of Florida at some point. No, I don't.

Oh, you don't. Okay. No, but I know the problem with the county in Florida. Yes, yes. We will get into that. That's what I was thinking. Yeah. Yeah.

Yes, you know something that will come up. Anyway, suddenly, George is the success story amongst the Bush children. And we're going to end it around here. Bush becomes the governor of Texas. There's little to talk about him being governor, so we're not going to dwell too much on it in the next episode. Because being the governor of Texas is the weakest governor in the country. It is a ceremonial role. The state has no state income tax. The legislature meets only for 140 days every two years. The governor has no cabinet, has no formal responsibility. The job has been compared to, on many occasions, to the monarchy of Britain. It's there. It doesn't really do much, but it's there. In other words, this seems like

the perfect political job for Bush. Ideal, yeah. So when he's in this, he'll know exactly how to be a president. So we're going to leave him there in his cushy job where he spends a lot of his afternoons playing a golf computer game, apparently, because there was so little for him to do, he'd get through the work in the morning and he'd just play, I'm assuming it's PGA, the EA game or something like that.

He just played that on his computer in his office. So leave good old George in his constantly failing upward motion playing his golf game. And we will pause there before the next episode. So there you go. Is that what you were thinking the early life of George Bush would be like?

I feel slightly mean because I do feel we've done nothing but laugh at him, but also at the same time he's brought a lot of this on himself. It is worse than I thought it was going to be. Yeah that's yeah I'm disappointed. I kind of assumed that as much as I know all the jokes about him not being the brightest spark in the box and him not being qualified to be president and him being completely out of his depth I kind of assumed that that was also a bit exaggerated,

coming from a very partisan place. But there was nothing there that makes me think this is a man who should be leading the most powerful country in the world. But everything now makes sense to me, from 2000 to like 2008. Yeah, of course. Of course.

His father, I could see why he became president. Yeah. Reagan, I could see why he became president Yeah Reagan, I could see why he became president Yeah Bill Clinton, ended up really disliking the guy But I can see why he became president Yeah We will see how he becomes president next episode

And this will, you've probably guessed If you're listening, will be a three-parter Because there is no way we are getting through the election And then through two terms in one episode So it will be three parts to this. And we will see how he does. But that will be released hopefully in two weeks' time. A lot of big stuff.

We've got one of the most controversial elections in American history to cover and obviously 9-11 coming up. So some big stuff. So who do you want in charge of America when one of the biggest events in all its history happens? Somebody that owns a baseball team. Yeah. So, that's for next time.

All we need to say really is some thank yous and then say goodbye. Yeah, thanks for downloading us on Popbean, iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you download us. It's great that you are doing that. It really supports us and thank you. That's all we need to say, I think. Let's say goodbye then. So, goodbye.

Goodbye, I think. Let's say goodbye then. So goodbye. Goodbye, W. So we've got some names, George. I was hoping we could run them by you. Okay, so yes, just some things perhaps we could change to by you. Okay. So, uh, yes, just, just some things perhaps we could change to Petro Bush. Petro Bush. I mean, we were thinking, uh, Bush petroleum, but obviously that would be BP. So we can't do that. Um, and also petroleum is very limited. I mean, I'm, I'm oil. Uh, yeah. Okay. Um, interesting. Uh, so I mean, like I say, no, no idea is a bad idea we've got

some here but if there's anything that you you were thinking of changing the company to obviously you said uh when we chatted last time you want something with the family name in so it's got to be something to do with bush yes so i okay why don't you share your ideas first okay and then and then we're pitching some of ours and we'll see if we can come up with anything. Okay. So I've got a poster here. Let me just get it out. Okay.

So the first one is Bush Exploration Company. Explore the Bush. Yeah? Yeah? You like it? Yeah? It's a W for win. Go on.

Yeah? Okay. Well, now I'll be honest. One of the reasons why we struggled with this is obviously because the name Bush... Yeah, yeah. ...sudden connotations... Of richness, wealth, yes. Right, yes, you're really not seeing this, are you?

So bush exploration might... Some people might find that amusing. I don't see why. I mean, it's a name of power, of strength. You know, everyone loves the massive bush. Okay, well... It's a good name. Well, obviously, I mean, Bush needs to be there,

but maybe exploring the bush. The bush. Maybe we need to move away from exploring. What about my taglines? I'm sorry, you've got taglines? Yes. Here we go. Bush Exploration Company diving deep into the bush.

Oh. Right, so you actually want to print diving deep into the bush yes it sounds great don't you think and then something like oil colon i'm looking for that juicy wet lubrication oh wow juicy juicy wet lubrication um not how i've ever heard oil uh just discussed before described um right i'm the ceo i know about oil yes yes clearly uh you do but maybe we could move away from exploration maybe bush uh bush petroleum no we can't have that bp uh bush no bush bush oil and um bush oil bush I mean, we did cross that one off.

We thought that. But it's better than what we've got. So, bush oil. Oh! I've got another idea. What? Oil. Yes.

Used for lubrication. Yes. Moist bush. Okay. Bush Exploration Company. Sounds like a fantastic idea. Let's...