moving, newsfilmlike portraits of an eneregtic, dyanimc Bush creating excitement and
moving through crowds, with an upbeat musical track behind him. Each of the
advertisements used a slogan that attempted to capitalize on Bush's experience, while
hitting Carter's wretched on-the-job performance and Ronald Reagan's inexperience on
the national scene: 'George Bush,' the announcer intoned, 'a President we won't have to
train.'" [fn 15] One of these shorts showed Bush talking about inflation to a group of
approving factory workers. In another, Bush climbed out of a private plane at a small
airport, surrounded by supporters with straw hats and placards and yelled "We're going
all the way" to the accompaniment of applause and music Goodman hoped would sound
"presidential." The inevitable footage of Bush getting fished out of the drink off Chichi
Jima shootdown was also aired.
Network camera crews were offered repeated chances to film Bush while he was jogging.
This was an oblique way of pointing out that Reagan would be 70 years old by the
begining of the primary season. "I'm up for the 1980's," was a favorite Bush quote for
interviews. There were no attacks on Reagan; indeed Bush was seeking to come across as
a moderate conservative, in order first to fend off the challenge of Sen. Howard Baker,
who was also running, and to gain on Reagan.
In a rather slavish imitation of the Carter victory scenario, Bush also chose to imitate
what had been called Carter's "fuzziness," or unwillingness to say anything of substance
about issues. Bush was the unabashed demagogue, telling Diane Sawyer of CBS when he
would finally talk about the issues: "if they can show me how it will get me more votes
someplace, I'll be glad to do it."
Bush talked vaguely about tax cuts to spur business and investment; he was unhappy
about the "decline in America's stature overseas" due to Carter; he was against excessive
government regulation. Military aggression overseas has never been far below the surface
of Bush's psyche; in 1979 he talked about the need to overcome the post-Vietnam guilt
syndrome. He was, he proclaimed, "sick and tired of hearing people apologize for
America." Bush was striving to appear as similar to Reagan, but more moderate in
packaging, younger and more dynamic, and above all, a Winner.
But in the midst of Bush's summer, 1979 preparations for his presidential bid, there was
one very serious moment of preparation that addressed the some real issues, albeit in a
way virtually invisible from the campaign trail. This was a conference Bush attended at
the Jonathan Institute in Jerusalem on July 2-5. Instead of mugging for the television
cameras while eating hotdogs on the Fourth of July at a picnic in Iowa or New
Hampshire, Bush journeyed to Israel for what was billed as the Jerusalem Conference on
International Terrorism.
The Jonathan Institute had been founded earlier the same year by Benjamin Netanyahu, a
young crazy of the Likud block, in memory of his brother Jonathan, who had been killed
during the Israeli raid on Entebbe in 1976. The Jonathan Institute was a semi-covert
propaganda operation and could only be defined as a branch of the Israeli government.
The committee sponsoring this conference on terrorism was headed up by Prime Minister