Still Shallow After All These Years?: George W says goodbye to the White House

A&E and History channel have endless quality family viewing on holidays. Served up today, on Thanksgiving: An historic tour of the White House, culminating in a state dinner this fall. Laura Bush, creditably, contributes heavily to the detail and anecdotal flavor of each room. They throw in some brief interview clips with Laura and George jointly. Lots of Barney and Miss Beasley playing on the lawn.

When asked what they'll miss when they have to move out shortly, GWB tosses off, "The cooking, being Commander in Chief of course, Marine One" [makes a gesture toward the lawn where the presidential helicopter takes off and lands]. They both joke about how good the food has been and will Laura be able to measure up now, and they say what a wonderful place it's been to live, an honor, etc.

I wasn't going to take such flippancy down a familiar path: So George W is still the callow man who took office 8 years ago, one you might suppose would get ego thrills being ferried in a helicopter to the private humongous jet, and in whose memory the superb food stands out above most experiences. It was an off-the-cuff remark. Yet he made almost identical statements in a StoryCorps interview broadcast on NPR. These interviews are intimate (conducted by your own family member usually) and designed for posterity. Time for shaping your legacy! And yet:

"Frankly, I'm not going to miss the limelight all that much," Bush said in an intimate family conversation with his sister, Doro Bush Koch, about how he'll feel when he leaves the White House to make way for Barack Obama on Jan. 20.

"Been a fabulous experience to be president," Bush told Doro in the conversation recorded for the oral-history organization StoryCorps. But he said he'll be ready to go when the time comes.

Bush did acknowledge in the Nov. 12 conversation _ aired Thursday on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" _ that he would miss the trips on the presidential jet and not having to worry about traffic. He and first lady Laura Bush both agreed in the talk that they would miss the chefs at the Executive Mansion, but disagreed about who would be in charge of meals when they move back to Texas in January.

Frankly, I won't miss you all that much, GWB. I've been disgusted at how little ownership he has taken over all the catastrophes that have happened over the last eight years. I shouldn't say happened, because I believe that is exactly the way he (and Cheney) view it--all the bad stuff just "happened" to him, and the country, when he was in fact the agent, "the decider."

Even September 11: we can debate whether Clinton should have "wagged the dog" during his own political meltdown and aggressively gone after bin Laden, but the fact remains, we know that the Bush administration did not get its act together in eight months in office to effectively protect the country. We know about the damning memo "Al Quaeda Attack Imminent."

Add to the seminal event of the Al Quaeda attacks, oh say, the baseless and endless war on Iraq, no WMD, Abu Ghraib, Gitmo, Katrina, mishandling of Afghanistan, and the cherry on the sundae, this financial crisis.

So, yes, he has a few regrets. He shouldn't have said, "Bring it on." He's mellowed.

At a time of emergency, when we could use a President who casts off the lame-duck stigma, GWB has already headed to the locker room. He could be trying, for the good of the country, to get things done instead of wind things down. He punted the auto industry loan to Congress, IMO, because he wants a Democratic Congress to take full responsibility, and blame, for an unpopular bailout. The president-elect wants it, so GWB should suck it up and do what he probably thinks ought to be done anyway, but is delaying for political reasons.

Yeah, I just want him to go away too. Unfortunately, GWB is spending his time under the radar wreaking as much damage as possible (on abortion rights and the environment) and placing friends in jobs. He's still officially in charge for another 7 or 8 weeks, and in principle he ought to be furiously bailing water, not trying to gracefully bow out.

Maybe he doesn't realize he's playing with real people's lives and livelihoods. Maybe he never did realize that. Maybe 8 years in the most serious, high-pressure, high-responsibility job in the world still didn't make GWB a serious, responsible and thoughtful person. It sure doesn't seem like it.