WP: Bushes' Distinct Views Imprint Praise

[kskiska]

By Dana Milbank
Saturday, June 12, 2004; Page A01

In their back-to-back eulogies at the National Cathedral yesterday, the presidents Bush revealed much about Ronald Reagan -- and about themselves.

The 41st and 43rd presidents, father and son, had never matched oratorical skills on the same national stage before yesterday's funeral for the 40th president. As they spoke of Reagan -- political rival and then boss of the elder Bush, ideological mentor of the younger Bush -- the two men showed that their shared blood does not mean they share the same style or even necessarily the same world view.

George H.W. Bush's speech was personal and emotional; he choked up and paused to compose himself as he confided: "As his vice president for eight years, I learned more from Ronald Reagan than from anyone I encountered in all my years of public life." George W. Bush's eulogy was biographical and devoid of personal anecdote; he traced Reagan's movement, "from Dixon to Des Moines to Hollywood to Sacramento to Washington, D.C."

George H.W. Bush's self-penned speech was conversational -- he joked about White House squirrels and Reagan's remark that a meeting with Bishop Desmond Tutu was "so-so" -- sometimes tending toward Hallmark sentiment; "Nancy was there for him always," he said. George W. Bush's speech, more than twice as long, was stylishly crafted by White House speechwriters; "Ronald Reagan belongs to the ages now, but we preferred it when he belonged to us," he said, paraphrasing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton at Abraham Lincoln's death.

(snip)

"It showed their different styles," said Rep. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who worked in the elder Bush's White House and is close to the current president. The younger Bush "was very pointed at times," Portman said, and "took us to another plane in larger, broader strokes." The elder Bush "did not have the rhetorical flourishes his son's speech had," but "it was the most personal, the most humorous. The emotion he showed was the most emotion we heard today."

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A35563-2004Jun11?language=printer

[ElectroPrincess]

1. Tks ... : )

"George W. Bush's speech, more than twice as long, was stylishly crafted by White House speechwriters ..."

Thanks for the update. Thank goodness the press didn't report whether Dubya choose to wear boxers or BVDs. <sigh>