militarily to attack Panama and Iraq, were substantially facilitated by these obsessive rage states.
- There are indications that Bush's inability to kill or capture Saddam Hussein, combined with his
inability to destroy the Baath party government of Iraq, frustrated of one of Bush's obsessive
compulsions and may thus have contributed to a hyperthryoid crisis and the emergence of atrial
fibrillation in early May of 1991. Alternatively, the accumulated tensions of the Gulf crisis, possibly
in some combination with other events, may have been sufficient to precipitate Bush'shospitalization.
The question that remains to be considered is whether Bush can be considered cured of the mental
and physiological disorders involved with his hyperthyroid crisis. The answer is that Bush
demonstrably continues to exhibit those symptoms of rage, irritability, uncontrollable outbursts,compulsive and frenetic activity, and impulsive decisions which we must conclude were part of the (^)
trigger for Basedow's disease in the first place. During the first six months after Bush drank his
cocktail of radioactive iodine, and he did not become any more tranquil. His agenda has remained
packed, and his sports calendar frenetic. He still tends to make unpredictable snap decisions. He had
often lost control of his emotions in public, most often through raother forms of affective upheaval. ge, but also through weeping and
June 5: Bush addressed the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Atlanta, Georgia,
and recounted his tearful Camp David decision to launch war in the Gulf. "And the tears started to
roll down the cheeks, and our mothers," Bush told the Baptists. As viewed by Andrew Rosenthal of the New York Times, the sceneinister smiled back, and I no longer worried how it looked to (^)
proceeded as follows:
At that moment, Mr. Bush's voice broke, and tears filled his eyes. He brushed at them with a finger.
Then he turned to one of the cameras near the lectern, flashed one of the incongruousoften appear in his moments of emotional discomfort, and pointed to his cheek. "Here we go," he grins that (^)
said.
Mr. Bush confessed to reporters afterward that he felt a little embarrassed by his display of emotion
before the delegates. "I do that in church," he said. "Maybe in public it's a kind of a first, or maybe athird." [fn 51]
According to other accounts, Bush's "voice cracked," and he "grew husky and choked."
June 16: Bush visited Los Angeles to attend a party thrown by Malibu producwho has been responsible for such films as "The Karate Kid" and "My Stepmother is an Alien."er Jerry Weintraub,
Bush also played golf with Ronald Reagan, outdriving and outputting the aging former president.
One press account suggests that Bush maintained his hyperhtyroid pace:
Apart from playing golf, Mr. Bush continued his usual mad dash of recreation. This morning, hewas in such a hurry to get to a tennis game that his motorcade roared off without his personal aide, (^)
his personal physician, and, more important, the military officer who carries codes for launching
nuclear missles. Unnerved by this omission, White House aides hurriedly rounded up transportation
and sped the officer to the tennis courts.
During this trip, Bush also experienced a rage outburst set off by a reporter's reference to the 1988
Newsweek cover that explored "the wimp factor." This set Bush off as follows:
You're talking to the wimp. You're talking to the guy that had a cover of a national magazine that
I'll never forgive, put that label on me. [fn 52]