This week on q a james man author and resident at John Hopkins School of advanced international studies. He talks about his biography of president george w. Bush. James mann a third of the biography on george w. Bush if a friend of yours who had never met george w. Bush and asked about him what would you say . I would say that he was a guy that was his son of a president. He had trouble dealing with that fact for the first 40 plus years of his life. Then he got his own personal life together enough to be a quite successful and true pa laetitia to be elected governor of texas, and then became the president of the United States. The first thing he would be known for at the time of his presidency and forever more with the fact that he was the president during the time of the september 11th attacks. He chose to wage a war in iraq that turned out to be a disaster. What were his early years like . He followed in his fathers footsteps. I see that quite literally, because he was forced almost to go to prep school. He went to yale. He did many of the things that his father dead. In his mind it was not him. He once said many years later there were differences between him and his father starting with the fact that he went to see and Houston Elementary School and his father what to carnage de school in connecticut. He grew up in texas, his father did not. He identified with and i think took comfort in the idea and image of himself as a texas good old boy. He became very good at playing that role. How about his schooling . So he went to texas schools until eighth grade. Then his parents sent him to prep school. By his own account i think he said many years later that making the transition to that school was the most difficult thing that he did in his life until he ran for president. He liked it there, there are painful funny stories of him writing his First College essay there. He took out the the source that his mother had given him because he did not want to use the word tears, he used the word last threats. The last awards are running through my cheek. He became the fun guy in the class. There are pictures of him as a cheerleader, a cheerleader dressed up. A woman leading the taunts. He was the goto guy for fun. That continues at yale, where he is the head of a fraternity, delta kappa epsilon. He is the guy who organizes the toga parties. The first time that his name appears in the New York Times i found was to defend his fraternity from one of their hes inc. Practices. He was the spokesman for the old for turning life at a time and this is the context when yield itself was changing. There were fraternities and parties there and many other students at yale that were the sons of former yale people. Yale was gradually becoming in the early sixties a meritocracy, like many other schools like yale. People were admitted on the basis of their test scores and it was becoming a more intense place. The faculty were becoming more professional than the old gentile faculty in the past. He developed such an antipathy to yale that he went three years into his presidency before he was ready to come back to the campus. Eventually, during his presidency he made peace with. It it was a long time coming. Why wasnt he accepted to law school . A couple of years after. When bush left yale, he lived a kind of singles life down in texas. His appearance left texas in the early seventies. First thing went to china. They went to the united nations. Then they went to china. They were not around. Bush lived in singles apartment. He went to the Texas National guard. There is more of a story to that. He like the sons of other texas politicians went into a special National Guard unit that was really for politicians sons and members of the dallas cowboys. This is during the vietnam war. It meant that he really did not have to fight. There have been disputes going back decades about how much pull was used. I found in research doing the book that no one has ever found his father george h. W. Bush intervening or making calls to get him out of the guard. But friends of his father and texas political leaders, where did he apply for a law school, and again why was he not accepted . I am having trouble remembering. That it might be in my own book but im having trouble remembering. I thought it might be texas. Thats correct. Bush at first when he was applying for college actually kind of went to austin to see the university of texas. You know, it may have been a wish but he ended up at yale. You are right. When he tried to go to law school and applied to texas at austin. Do you know why they did not accept him . I do not at this point. You point out in your book that there are two words to describe his change in life. One is drinking, the other is religion. Explain that. They come together in the mid 19 eighties. In the period of 1985 and 1986, first lets talk about what happened and then what is in the background. As far as drinking, in 1986, he celebrates his 40th birthday with friends. Hes often in colorado at the broadmoor hotel. He drinks with his friends and weeks up with a terrible hangover. He has a bad drinking problem. Hes been having a drinking problem for a long. While hes been arrested for drinking under the influence. This is been a problem. He wakes up the day after and says he is not going to drink. He does. It he stops drinking. The second thing that happens is he becomes a evangelical christian. During this same period he gets into religion regularly. In my view there is a interesting political component to this. Both of these things happen a couple of years after his father decides to run for president. The sequence is that in 1984, Ronald Reagan wins reelection. Hes obviously not able to run again in 1988. George w. H. Bush is the Vice President. In april of 1985, his father calls the entire bush family for a meeting. He brings out lee atwater. Now famous political consultant scoundrel, great political tech petition. He says that this is lee atwater, lee atwater addresses everyone and says your father will run for president. You have to be careful. What any member of the family does could come back to haunt him. George jr. , that is george w. Bush are very distrustful. They pulled him aside and say how do we know we can trust you . They asked that question because that water is a political consultant. At water keeps swearing he will. Jeb bush says what we mean is someone throws a grenade on our father, will you jump on it . They were mistrustful of the consultant but they are telling him stay clear. In the middle of these warnings, george w. Bush, this is a year before he gives up drinking altogether. That is the background on drinking. He has had his warnings. He does not want to get into trouble. As far as religion, i will not sit that someones religion has a political component to it in its origins. Though i will say that as soon as george w. Bush becomes a evangelical christian, he becomes the liaison for his fathers president ial campaign with evangelical christians. It is a rule that he plays throughout the 1988 campaign, through the 92 campaign. How often did he run for office before he ran for governor of texas . In the mix of all of that when did he meet laura and marry her . First he ran for office once, before his texas campaign. That was in the late seventies. He ran in 78 for a seat and congress. He lost. He lost to a guy named cant. Its interesting in light of what we later know and think of george w. Bush that in that campaign, his opponent attacked him for being this east coast preppy guy from out of town who couldnt possibly know texas well. So he portrayed george w. Bush almost like his father, bush started to develop responses to this. One thing that i think many people agree on is he had a good sense of humor. Finally when he gets tired of being attacked, he says we have a candidate that was born in new haven, connecticut. An outsider. He said i was born there because i wanted to be with my mother that day. What about laura . He married her in the late seventies. Matter where and under what circumstances . Friends arranged to get them together at a barbecue. They were in midland. She was a local librarian. Its interesting to me that even his choice of east spouse reflected this kind of anti elite. He chose someone from texas. Not someone from the social set of his parents. In fact if you read laura bushes men more closely, she says quite gently, it took me about ten years to be comfortable with barbara bush and her acid tongue. Laura is quite the reverse. What was your assignment . These are small books. Under 200 pages. Theyve done them on all president s. I talked to my friends is that if you write more than 50,000 words we will cut off your arm. What was your assignment and what do they want you to come up with and who did . It like all the others in the series, it is published by henry holts. They want you to briefly discuss the background of president s, then cover their presidencies, and briefly their life after presidency. In fact, the fine editor of this book that first asked me for a plan before i started working. I turned it in there were eight chapters, two were about the presidency, the last one was post president ial life. He laughed and said yes you hit on it. That is what all of these books are with one exception. That one exception diverted history for a while harrison. He was president for only 30 days before he got a cold and died. The epilogue was the presidency. What is your background, and what are you doing now . I am a by profession a journalist. I spent more than 30 years of my career in journalism. Actually, this is now the 50th anniversary of the day when i decided that i want to be a journalist. I was about to go to medical school and i ask for a leave of absence 50 years ago this week. I was granted a year absence from medical school. I started at is School Newspaper in new haven connecticut and i never had so much fun in my life. I may have taken another year of leave, i dont even remember now. The minute i started by late newspapers and never went back. I worked for over the next couple of decades the new haven paper briefly and for the washington post. Eventually i was at the Los Angeles Times for over 20 years. Both in washington and overseas. And you are doing what now . Since then i have been writing books fulltime. I did that first in a washington think tank. Strategic international studies. I wrote a book that covers the george w. Bush administration called rest of the falcons. I have been writing books there since. Here are some videos, very brief from 1988 george w. Bush is here in this town looking for his father. In an interview we did with him, i want you to hear him talk about texas. It is a state that encourages growth. It has pride to it that i like. I happen to think that texas has problems. The opportunities in the state are enormous. I am a person that is always seeking opportunity. That was 1980, it what was george w. Bush doing during the campaign . What do you think he was thinking during that time about his own future in politics . Very interesting question. It is a continuation of the story i was telling about lee atwater and his trust in him. George w. Bush at that time he was out of the oil business. He was relatively free. When he expressed some miss trust to atwater about how his Fathers Campaign would be run. His father said if you dont trust me why dont you come to washington and work alongside me and watch me every day . George w. Bush dead. He worked along side lee atwater for over a year. He moved to washington and helps. His first role in the campaign was loyalty enforcer. So with all of these politicians and political figures running around, he was the guy watching out for his fathers interests. I am sure that atwater was too but he wanted to double check. His own ambitions, he had his own ambitions at the time. He wanted to move ahead for a second in 92 after his father lost, he runs for governor of texas. Everyone says that he developed his ambitions after his father lost. No i think that his, he kept his ambition in check. In fact, barbara at a point discouraged george jr. For running for governor of texas in 1990 because she thought it was not a good idea while george bush senior was president. Anything that one of them did could reflect on the other. How difficult was it for him to get elected as governor of texas . The best line on that came from his father, george h. W. Bush who was not always full of great quips but said that for george w. Bush to be elected as president after being governor of texas was like a six inch pucks. It was hard. There was a very popular well remembered now democratic governor, and richard. She was the one who said he was built with us, born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Ann richards was very popular but george w. Bush ran hard against her. He had a very good political adviser. Together they worked out a strategy to beat her. One of the tactics that they had, which people saw when he was president was incredible message discipline. This was one of the characteristics of bush as president. He would never have particularly penetrating or long answers but he would develop a handful of two or three sentences and delivered them over and over again. Years later, ann richards said in frustration, she meant this as a political compliment but she said if you ask george bush the time of day during that campaign, he would say we must teach our children to read. He would give the same response to everything. How did he get elected president . How . Lets talk about his political tactics and successes. He learned from his fathers loss in 1992. He developed what he felt were strategies to win where his father lost. Also, he noticed his fathers errors. He needed to bring together within the Republican Party to different constituencies. One is the traditional republican conservative constituency. The Old Country Club constituencies. Those who wanted their taxes cut. Listen number two is dont raise taxes, as his father. Did he needed to develop much stronger support from and evangelical support from that his father did. He also needed support from new conservatives, that was a imported faction in the party. All of those wings in the party needed to give strong support to the republican candidate. People forget now for example, but the evangelicals were always not easy solid constituency in the Republican Party. They supported the democrats for several decades. Nixon got if until cull support. Jimmy hurd are, a Southern Baptist democrat. Reagan developed much more support from the evangelicals. His father lost that kind of support. Bush worked both for his father and himself to bring evangelicals into the Republican Party. So that was one part of his Political Task heat succeeded in. As far as what i call the hawks, Foreign Policy, ann richards neo conservatives. In the 1992 campaign, they tended to support bill clinton. They were so unhappy with his father. This had to do with the fact that his father did not support the break of of the soviet union, the ukraine, a lot of other things. Bill clinton supported the neo conservatives, clinton went to work for them. He pulls together all the wings of the Republican Party and then campaigns. He has no trouble winning at all, winning the republican nomination. Then, running against gore, he goes against the clinton and lewinsky stand scandal. He says he will bring honor and dignity back to america. It was enough not to win the majority of the country. He created a deadlock in the Electoral College and supreme battle. It wasnt as the there was a overwhelming victory. Not at all. As you look back at the gore versus bush decision, the fact that he ended up winning the electoral votes he needed enough the popular vote, what is your opinion of what happened during that period . I think it was a travesty. Ive covered the Supreme Court for eight years. One thing that i thought i learned is that the court of that era and the conservatives on the court of that era, i am talking about people like just rehnquist were in favor of federalism state rights. I thought when the florida Supreme Court, based on the florida constitution awarded the state of florida too gore, that based on its own principles i thought the Supreme Court would allow that to stand. State we will not interfere. That is not what they did. They created their own theory that did not make sense to me. What impact did that have on his presidency . Less than people think. Most people thought that not having won a majority of the popular vote, winning such a narrow victory, he would start out carefully. Most of what he did would be directed. In fact he started the presidency boldly. He asked for a tax cut in his first year. He succeeded with getting enough democratic support to get a pass. It was a radical move where people thought he was going to run from the center. By most accounts he had been a centrist, moderate governor. He ran as a strong conservative with bold initiatives. Focused mostly on tax cuts. 9 11. How many lives . Its obvious january 20th to september 11th. Whats that legacy . The legacy is about as profound as any president has ever faced. It is the first time the United States homeland has been attacked since the war of 1812 and it changes the country automatically, immediately into one obsessed and big ways and small with protecting its security. To take the most obvious example, the way that 325 millions americans go through airports today started on september 12th, or whenever the flights resumed and it has never gone back to what it was in september 10th. It affected American Foreign policy. For the start, i think we can say that had a profound effect on bushes Foreign Policy team. That played certainly a role in the decision two years later. Here is a piece of video after his book came out,. I worry about my legacy but im still studying theodore rebel, or harry truman. There is not going to be an objective history done on this administration for a long time. Yeah. That is a little self serving. It is true for any president that it takes many decades for historians that may be true with parts of what bush did. But it is not too soon to judge on some aspect