Masschusetts to Boston. Ms. Drew commented that Bush seemed to enjoy campaigning. Bush
replied in part:
I do. Isn't that awful? I really enjoy it, and I say 'awful' only because I'm just beginning to wonder
what the hell's happening to me, you know, but I really do enjoy it. I loved going through that
cafeteria, kidding with them and learning stuff and sitting and chatting and trying to be responsive
to the person and yet have a concern for wbetter, more sensitive, stronger, from things like that. And there is the smell of the greasepaint andhat concerns them. I mean it when I say I'm better. I'll be
that other crap; there's some of that. I mean, this is very different today. There was a time nobody'd
stand out in even hot weather to see me. I was all alone four months ago, and here people are
waiting. And there's a certain forward adrenaline that exists today. Hopefully, there will be more of
them. Maybe not: maybe I'll be lousy and they'll go away, but that's part of the fun of ithe process itself. It's a good process. [fn 4] t. Part of it is
The leading feature of this sample is Bush's total lack of rigor; his personal idiom is incapable of
expressing causality or precision. Already the subject-object relations are blurred, antecedents are a
realm of anything goes, and verbal action has dwindled to insignificance. Underneath the avid andenthusiastic persona is a mind that is petulant, bored, and blase' about everything that does not
touch the interests of the ego. The result is an impression of overwhelming, undifferentiated
banality. One is reminded of a narrative voice like the following:
If you reand what my lousy childhood wally want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born,as like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had
me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to
know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would
have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything personal about them. They're quite touchy
about anything like that, especially my father. [fn 5]
The Holden Caulfield of J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye inhabited the world that also
belonged to George Bush, the world of the northeast prep schools of the 1940's. Apart from the
obvious parallels between George and Holden, there is the interesting question of whether Bush
might have a closer relation to this literary personage. In the course of the errant Holden Caulfield'stime in New York City, he takes a girlfriend to a matinee theatre performance; during the
intermission the girlfriend, named Sally, spots "some jerk she knew on the other side of the lobby.
Some guy in one of those very dark grey flannel suits and one of those checkered vests. Strictly Ivy
League. Big deal." Holden recounts the later conversation between Sally and her friend: "You
should've seen him when old Sally asked him how he liked the play. He was the kind of a phonythat have to give themselves room when they answer somebody's question. He stepped back, and (^)
stepped right on the lady's foot behind him. He probably broke every toe in her body. He said the
play itself was no masterpiece, but that the Lunts, of course, were absolute angels. Angels. For
Chrissake. Angels. That killed me. Then he and Sally started talking about a lot of people they both
knew. It was the phoniest conversation you ehad one of those very phony, Ivy League voices, one of those very tired, snobby voiver heard in your life." "The worst part was, the jerkces. He sounded (^)
just like a girl. He didn't hesitate to horn in on my date, the bastard. I even thought for a minute that
he was going to get in the goddam cab with us when the show was over, because he walked about
two blocks with us, but he said he had to meet a bunch of phonies for cocktails, he said. I could see
them all sitting around in some bar, with their goddam checkered vests, criticizing shows and booksand women in those tired, snobby voices. They kill me, those guys."
Who was Sally's friend? "His name was George something - I don't even remember- and he went to
Andover. Big, big deal." Who was the "phony Andover bastard" who so exasperated Holden
Caulfield? Can this be a very early cameo appearance of George Herbert Walker Bush? J.D.