NY Times: What happened to Bush's 'Texas swagger?'

RAW STORY
Published: Friday May 26, 2006

"What happened to the Texas swagger?" asks Elisabeth Bumiller in a White House Memo article slated for the front page of Saturday's edition of The New York Times, RAW STORY has found.

"Maybe it went the way of his poll numbers," Bumiller writes. "Maybe this is a newly reflective President Bush. Or maybe the first lady had her say."

"Whatever the case, when Bush said at a news conference on Thursday night that he regretted some personal mistakes, like declaring "bring 'em on" in 2003, he seemed a little like the chastened husband who finally admitted he had done something wrong," writes Bumiller. "Whether it worked or not depends on whom you ask."

Laura Bush has had to "rein" in her husband in the past, Bumiller notes.

"Bush has defended his Texas talk as the kind of plain-spoken language that Americans like to hear, but Laura Bush, for one, has at times tried to rein him in," writes Bumiller. "In a widely reported comment at the time, Laura Bush sidled up to her husband after he said he wanted bin Laden 'dead or alive' and asked, 'Bushie, are you gonna git 'im?'"

According to Bumiller, the White House was "prepared" for such questions.

"White House officials would not say Thursday whether Bush's response had been spontaneous or planned, but they did say they had prepared for the question," Bumiller reveals. "In fact, they have prepared for the question ever since John Dickerson, then of Time magazine, asked Bush at a news conference in April 2004 if he could name the biggest mistake he had made, and Bush, struggling, said that nothing popped into his head."

FULL TIMES ARTICLE HERE