interesting!
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jesus/interviews/wead.htmlQ:Talk about your relationship with George W. Bush. How long have you known him? You're described in a couple of different bios about you as an old friend, and as one of his advisers.
A:I first met George W. in March 1987. I was working for his father, running coalitions in the pre-campaign part of his presidential run. I didn't know it, but apparently George W. was auditing some of the memos I was sending to his father. I knew that his father was vetting my memos with somebody. I suspected it was Billy Graham. It had to be someone sharp who understood evangelical Christianity, because he was acting on a lot of the information I was sending him. ...
Q:Tell me a little bit about what you were doing in George Bush Sr.'s campaign. What were you helping him with? Could you explain your role, and the memos that you were writing therefore?
A:I was writing a memorandum for George Bush Sr. on how to build a relationship with the evangelical community -- how to define it, who they are, where they come from, what's their language. What are you saying when you speak? What are you saying when you say those words? ...
I was churning out hundreds of pages of memoranda, and he was sending them back with little notations. So someone was talking in his ear about this information I was feeding him. Basically, I was sending him memos to help him build a relationship with the evangelical movement, which was the most powerful new constituency in the GOP and that election cycle. It turned out he was vetting them with his son.
So in March 1987, I met George W. and Laura Bush and the twins in Corpus Christi. George W. said, "I've been reading your memorandum. Good stuff, Wead. I'm taking you over. You report to me. I'll be your boss." So that was that.
<snip>
Q:I've read a couple of things you said about the fact that George W. Bush ran for governor after he helped his dad. He used a lot of the techniques that he learned with you, or he knew intuitively -- we don't know which is which. ... He sort of took what he learned in Washington working on his dad's campaign and applied it to the Texas races. Can you talk about how that happened?
A:Sometimes, when we would prepare these memos for his father, we would prepare a memorandum on a region or a state. For example, one memo was like a 20-pager on the state of Texas. Who are the evangelical leaders in Texas, and why? Who to stay away from, who's radioactive. What
the various doctrines and denominations, what percentages, where, what major churches, and some suggestions, or technique, or strategy, or hints.
I remember him reviewing the memorandum on Texas, and he just lit up. He said, "Ah, you know, I could do this in Texas. I could make this work in Texas." There was no secret he was talking about running for governor. But he'd see this, and said, "Whoa." To me, it was like the missing piece for him.
He had run for office in Texas, and his opponent had kind of played the evangelical culture card against him by saying, "Everybody at George's house is going to go out and have a beer," you know, before the election. "We're different, our people are different." And he got beat in the congressional election.
Now he had become an evangelical Christian himself. So he's reading this strategy, and he's thinking, "Whoa, this could certainly work for me."
so much more....
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