Flattery Will Get You Somewhere

Via Spencer Ackerman, an intriguing passage from Elizabeth Bumiller's book on Condoleezza Rice:

[Bush] had never met anyone like Rice. She could talk baseball, football, and foreign policy all at the same time, but she did not sound like an intellectual and she never made him feel inadequate or ignorant. On the contrary, Rice made Bush feel sharper, particularly when she complimented him on his questions. Bush did not know many black people well, and it made him feel good about himself that he got along so easily with Rice. It was hard not to see that she was also attractive, athletic, and competitive, and, like him, underestimated for much of her adult life.

It's nice to know that we're governed by a dim-witted man of limited life experience who lets his key personnel and policy decisions be driven by his massive insecurities. Just a few months left to go.

Comments

Who underestimated Condoleezza Rice? (At least, before she became a failure as National Security Advisor. But that was estimation, not underestimation.) If anything, she's been overestimated for most of her career.

Posted by Gabriel | June 6, 2008 2:27 PM

As Ackerman puts it,

Underestimated. It’s true that Bush has been consistently regarded as being a poor human being for much of his life. But after two unwon wars, a drowned city, a collapsing econo — oh, just go down the list, it feels so tired just rehashing all this — you kind of have to say he was estimated rather accurately.

Posted by Monty | June 6, 2008 2:32 PM

Well, in fairness to Bush, I'd like to spend a lot of time hanging out with an "attractive, athletic, and competitive" woman (of any ethnicity -- well, maybe not Irish) who constantly was complimenting me and going on and on about how smart I was.

It would be better than the attractive, unathletic and competitive woman I'm currently married to who is constantly berating me and going on and on about what I moron I am.

(Last night we were watching the montage of sexist Hillary clips on the Daily Show, and after the point where about 18 conservative pundits in a row said that no matter what Hillary was talking about, men just heard [insert whiny voice] "take out the traaaassshhh!" My better half glared at me and said "don't even think about it.")

Posted by Joe | June 6, 2008 2:32 PM

For that matter, who has ever underestimated Bush?

Posted by Tom | June 6, 2008 2:34 PM

Jeb Bush doesn't seem like an insecure bully. I wonder if it's just George W. Bush's nature, or if he had a particularly bad reaction to attending schools he was unprepared for like Harvard Business School.

Posted by stm177 | June 6, 2008 2:36 PM

For that matter, who has ever underestimated Bush?

Posted by Tom | June 6, 2008 2:36 PM

I don't think Bush minds being underestimated; but being misunderestimated is intolerable.

Posted by tinisoli | June 6, 2008 2:37 PM

I'm glad McClellan's book is selling so well, even though he's a toad, because maybe we'll see more Bushies cashing in and dishing the dirt.

Posted by chris | June 6, 2008 2:41 PM

Great Review by Russell Baker- Condi and the Boys - on the April 3, NYR.

Posted by Wu Tang | June 6, 2008 2:44 PM

One wonders just how Ms. Bumiller knows W's reaction to Ms. Rice in such extraordinary detail.

Posted by ostap | June 6, 2008 2:54 PM

"she was also attractive,"

Umm in what parallel universe is this considered true?

Posted by drew | June 6, 2008 2:56 PM

I am not comforted by "only 7 months left." I fear they could be worse than the 7.5 years we've had combined.

On W's psychology - he is the oldest son in a competitive family. He is also older than Jeb, and his sister died of leukemia at a vulnerable time of his development. The supposed story is that on the afternoon of her funeral, his parents (and not condemning them for how they dealt with their grief) went out for a round of golf, and then at dinner told the surviving siblings that they would no longer talk about her.

If this is true, it would be devastating to any child - the idea that you are disposable, that emotional reaction to tragedy is a waste of time, and that outside-the-norm reaction to human events is acceptable. W then went on to be an animal abuser (firecrackers set off in frogs), and on from there.

Posted by hopeless pedant | June 6, 2008 3:00 PM

"One wonders just how Ms. Bumiller knows W's reaction to Ms. Rice in such extraordinary detail"

I had the same reaction. Too far to go inside Bush's head with any confidence as a journalist. But as someone trying to sell a book to the left, it's gold!

Posted by Helter | June 6, 2008 3:06 PM

she never made him feel inadequate or ignorant

The fact that someone makes Bush feel smart does not recommend them.
.

Posted by Grand Moff Texan | June 6, 2008 3:12 PM

Re Drew

""she was also attractive,"

Umm in what parallel universe is this considered true?"

I would like Mr. Drew to inform us in what sense is Mr. Rice not attractive. I think she's hot! Maybe Mr. Drew is someone who thinks that Ann Coulter is attractive.

Posted by SLC | June 6, 2008 3:32 PM

I wish Molly Ivins were still here. She was warning everyone about the Decider and no one wanted to listen. Isn't Elizabeth Bumiller the NYT equivalent to David Gregory(Before his new MSNBC show, anyway)? Bumiller has long been a hack. Another in a long line of disgraces at the Old Grey Lady.

Posted by Joe Klein's conscience | June 6, 2008 3:37 PM

Most other writers would have intended the quoted passage to be a damning indictment of the president. Bumiller probably thinks she's depicted something flattering.

Posted by Tyro | June 6, 2008 3:40 PM

You know how you still have that dream where you're back in college and it's the Final Exam and you suddenly realize you haven't studied a single thing all semester? Well, I bet GWB has a similar nightmare where he dreams he's President of the United States but he doesn't know a damn thing about how to do his job. And then he wakes up and it's true!

Well, Condi's job is to make the bad dreams go away, to tell GWB that of course he knows enough to be President.

Posted by Steve Sailer | June 6, 2008 3:48 PM

She's smart, knew he was callow and a jangle of nerves and played him accordingly. Putin read him well too. Your status in the Bush household is exacted in a cold, off-handed manner. Disapproval, disapprobation - it's all implied. This is not Howard Sternville where dad berates you as a "stupid moron!" and mom wonders outloud why you're so incompetent. It's insidious Waspville and all the shit came Georgie's way.

Posted by Trevor | June 6, 2008 3:50 PM

I think this reflects on the argument of whether you want a so called "elitist" or would rather have an "everybodys" man running the country. A good elitist would understand his or her faults and account for them in the decisions they make, tending not to overreact but to be more conteplative and less emotional in decisions.

A good elitist can accept humbling experiences and think straight about courses of action without mixing in the distractions of retribrution and revenge.

No one ever thought Bush was an "elitist" thats for certain.

Posted by Tom | June 6, 2008 3:53 PM

I think this reflects on the argument of whether you want a so called "elitist" or would rather have an "everybodys" man running the country. A good elitist would understand his or her faults and account for them in the decisions they make, tending not to overreact but to be more conteplative and less emotional in decisions.

A good elitist can accept humbling experiences and think straight about courses of action without mixing in the distractions of retribrution and revenge.

No one ever thought Bush was an "elitist" thats for certain.

Posted by Tom | June 6, 2008 3:54 PM

I think this reflects on the argument of whether you want a so called "elitist" or would rather have an "everybodys" man running the country. A good elitist would understand his or her faults and account for them in the decisions they make, tending not to overreact but to be more conteplative and less emotional in decisions.

A good elitist can accept humbling experiences and think straight about courses of action without mixing in the distractions of retribrution and revenge.

No one ever thought Bush was an "elitist" thats for certain.

Posted by Tom | June 6, 2008 3:54 PM

"dim-witted man of limited life experience ....driven by his massive insecurities

A fairly good description of several Atlantic bloggers.

Posted by typo | June 6, 2008 3:58 PM

I think that Jon Stewart nailed Rice and Bush best. He said that their unique and special bond dated to that magic summer only a few short years ago when she taught him how to read.

Posted by seeker6079 | June 6, 2008 4:05 PM

If Baker's review is accurate it sounds like Rice has been constantly over-rated in her career.

Posted by Jeffrey Davis | June 6, 2008 4:14 PM

As for Rice being under appreciated: she was Provost at Stanford, where she earned a reputation for being impulsive, for disregarding advice and even information from others, and for being autocratic. Many there were relieved when she was called to Washington.

Posted by lgm | June 6, 2008 4:16 PM

First time I saw her speak, while she was provost at Stanford, she read your speech from notes (no shame in that) BUT had numerous subject-verb agreement problems ("they is" level of error)--which is unforgiveable when reading from notecards. So, in my personal experience, she's overrated.

Also, remember that she's a Soviet expert who somehow got her first policy jobs after Soviet expertise stopped being valuable.

Finally, on the attractive front, it was often said (and may still be true) that you could bounce a quarter off her ass. She was apparently pleased with a test of this theory.

Posted by zaleriana | June 6, 2008 4:27 PM

Jeb Bush doesn't seem like an insecure bully. - stm177

People who have lived in FL longer than I could set you straight about Jeb.

*

Also, remember that she's a Soviet expert who somehow got her first policy jobs after Soviet expertise stopped being valuable. - zaleriana

She is also, IIRC, a Soviet expert who was wrong (when the neo-cons, of all people were right! which is why she defers to them so) about what was going on when the Soviet Union collapsed.

Posted by DAS | June 6, 2008 5:29 PM

It's nice to know that we're governed by a dim-witted man of limited life experience who lets his key personnel and policy decisions be driven by his massive insecurities. Just a few months left to go.
================================================

It's nice to know we have journalists like Bumiller who can read minds and know exactly what GW Bush is thinking at all times. Sure saves on travel expenses for interviews!

Jeebus - things like this are as bad as all the "pocket" psychoanalyses of Bill Clinton and the effect his early family life must have had on his behavior! Give it a rest

Posted by Campesino | June 6, 2008 5:30 PM

Please keep her physical appearance off this web site. The original Bumiller quote was Bush' opinion of her looks. We don't have to add our own. It's not necessary to comment on body parts of female politicians you don't like.

Posted by lgm | June 6, 2008 5:31 PM

Matt is pale pudgy and hairy.

Posted by bear fan | June 6, 2008 5:41 PM

matt, you must listen to sports announcers a lot. they are always saying the obviously redundant, " left to go ". i think what you mean to say is that there are only a few months left. sincerely, harold

Posted by conbrio | June 6, 2008 6:09 PM

Actually, this really makes me wonder which totally omniscient Elisabeth Bumiller we should believe - the one that Matt thinks shows W as a dim bulb or this one:

Mr. Bush and his vice president of course sat side by side, and Mr. Bush did most of the talking. Commission members said the president answered tough questions without hesitation, and with little help from Mr. Cheney and Alberto R. Gonzales, the White House counsel who also attended the session.

This was hardly news at the White House, where no one doubts who is in charge. Although Mr. Cheney is the most powerful vice president in history, it is Mr. Bush who makes the decisions, overruling, if necessary, Mr. Cheney.

Mr. Bush, for example, went to the United Nations over the vice president's strong objections in the fall of 2002 to seek international support for a war on Iraq and overruled Mr. Cheney when the vice president wanted to inoculate every single American against a potential outbreak of smallpox.

Bob Woodward's new book, ''Plan of Attack,'' which is not uniformly positive for the Bush administration, nonetheless portrays Mr. Bush as decisive and engaged, and quotes Mr. Cheney as referring to the president when he is not around as ''the Man.''

Yet the perception persists among Mr. Bush's most fervent critics: Mr. Cheney is de facto president, and a clueless Mr. Bush takes his orders from him. An angry left, still stinging over the 2000 election and now furious over the shifting reasons for war in Iraq, sees in Mr. Bush's less-than-articulate news conferences a less-than-sharp mind. Therefore, Mr. Cheney must be running the country from under Mr. Bush's Oval Office desk.

''People on the left hear Bush discuss things in such simple ways, and yet carry off what seem to be diabolical plots so effortlessly, that they can't believe it's really him,'' said David R. Gergen, the communications director to another president, Ronald Reagan, who was perceived by his critics to be manipulated by a powerful White House staff. ''It's almost impossible for people on the left to believe that simple-speaking people can be successful at politics, or can successfully govern.''

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04E2D8123DF931A35756C0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1

Posted by Campesino | June 6, 2008 6:16 PM

but being misunderestimated is intolerable

Shouldn't that be "intoleratable"? :-)

Posted by BethanyAnne | June 6, 2008 6:50 PM

I would like Mr. Drew to inform us in what sense is Mr. Rice not attractive. I think she's hot!

A subjective matter, of course, but, to me, it always looks like she's scowling. I think it's something to do with the shape of her forehead, but I find it a little off-putting. YMMV.

That said, I can think of quite a few women her age who are in considerably worse shape so even though she's not my cuppa, I wouldn't call her ugly.

Maybe Mr. Drew is someone who thinks that Ann Coulter is attractive.

Are you suggesting that he's attracted to Adam's apples?

Posted by Andrew Lias | June 6, 2008 7:30 PM

Re Andrew Lias

"Are you suggesting that he's attracted to Adam's apples?"

Maybe he's attracted to females (?) who look like Twiggy.

Posted by SLC | June 6, 2008 8:03 PM

It's nice to know that we're governed by a dim-witted man of limited life experience who lets his key personnel and policy decisions be driven by his massive insecurities. Just a few months left to go.

Yes, only a few more months before we replace W with a president with even less life experience and the judgment to surround himself with people like Rev. Wright, Tony Rezko and Bill Ayers. That's change we all can believe in...

Posted by A New Fox News Fan | June 6, 2008 8:05 PM

"a dim-witted man of limited life experience who lets his key personnel and policy decisions be driven by his massive insecurities" --

Take a way the "dim-witted" and you've described Lyndon Johnson.

Posted by DHN | June 6, 2008 10:19 PM

Condi V. Barack

Barack actually has been underestimated his whole life (until recently)

Obama received less affirmative action in college than either Bush or Cheney - Yet, he excellled.

Condi had often been hailed as an intellectual - yet she speaks Russian less well than many Mexican undocs speak English.

Unfortunately - Rice was dishonest many times in front of Congress (many Republicans secretly agree) and she lacks insight. Her callous comments during the Israel/Hezb war set back US diplomacy.

She has few diplomatic accomplishments.

Obama, on the other hand - is a brilliant writer and speaker and leader.

God bless his win.

Posted by Comment | June 7, 2008 12:37 AM

Condi's attractive, as Klingons go.

Posted by SqueakyRat | June 7, 2008 2:05 AM

"I'd like to spend a lot of time hanging out with an "attractive, athletic, and competitive" woman (of any ethnicity -- well, maybe not Irish)"

What's wrong with Andrea Corr - or Sharon Corr - or Caroline Corr?

All nice Irish girls. Not so athletic, maybe (except for Caroline, the drummer, who has been known to work out with weights - "Caroline pumps iron! Jim works on his stomach with pies!", Andrea once said), and not known for massive cleavage, but still.

OTOH, ask Jim Corr:

"Any fool knows you don't tell Irish girls what to do!"

Jim on Andrea: "She was such a cuddly little button as a baby. Then she was a cuddly little, sticky, messy button. Now she's this thing that blasts my ears with a tin whistle if I'm not up by 9am."

Jonathan Ross once referred to Jim Corr as one of the unluckiest men in history (as he cannot "date any of his hot sisters").

Andrea:
http://img181.imageshack.us/my.php?image=thecorrs8014andrealh5.jpg

Sharon:
http://img179.imageshack.us/my.php?image=thecorrs7123sharonoc3.jpg

Caroline:
http://www.wallpaperbase.com/wallpapers/celebs/carolinecorr/caroline_corr_3.jpg

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | June 7, 2008 5:01 AM

I just wonder when someone will get to writting the REAL book about George?

The one where Dick Cheney tells Russert that Bush is the presidential face, than Karen Hughes gets mad, than is driven out, as well as Treasury Sec. Paul H. O'Neill, Colin Powell and list of anyone else Cheney felt got in the way of his direction.

Something under the title of "The Man Who Wasn't President" (and the sickness of the Republican Party who love a man who was not). The GOP president was Dick Cheney and he really only ever had a poll ratings of 17% most of the time, a malevolent, seething maggot of a man - which is really today's Republican Party in a nutshell, since they clearly worship Cheney so passionately. But wasn't Cheney really the kingpin of whitecollar criminality.

And with the long arm of Tom DeLay nobody can say it was Groupthink, as Scott McClellan pretends it was, it was control via threats, and disloyality was punished. That is the book that should be written.

Hell, even now all signs point to the fact the McCain can't even get away.

Posted by Me-again | June 7, 2008 10:03 AM