My Lunch With Bob (and Breakfast With Jenna)

I was holding off writing this post until I had my pictures from my Florida trip last month developed, but they are on one of those disposable cameras, and I still have like fifteen shots to go (and I rarely take photos), so you're just going to have to trust me on this one. But once I have the photos, I'll trow them up on the website.

As many of you know, I manage a bookstore that's part of a big national chain. I won't say which one, but I will say that in the immigration debate, I am very interested in protecting our Borders. Anyhow, last moth we had our annual managers meeting in Florida, and we had an opportunity to see and hear several top authors speak, as a matter of fact we had an author speak at each meal. Some of us had the honor of being able to sit at the table with the authors, and I was fortunate enough to share a table with Bob Woodward, and also have breakfast with Jenna Bush.

Now I'm going to spend the rest of this post talking about Bob Woodward, but let me take a brief moment to say what a delightful, intelligent, and thoughtful girl Jenna Bush was, and what an honor it was to speak with her. Say what you will about George W. Bush (and many of you have), he and Laura did something right to turn out such an impressive child.

Now in all fairness, I have not meant Jenna's sister Barbara, so I'm not saying George and Laura were flawless in the raising of their children. Actually, from what I've learned from numerous T.V. shows and movies, the likelihood is that Barbara is probably pure evil, such most twins consist of a good twin and an evil one, but I digress....

Okay, Bob Woodward. Bob Woodward is of course half of the team of Woodward and Bernstein, the two reporters who broke the Watergate story and effectively ended the Nixon presidency. And while Bob is nowhere near as attractive as Jenna Bush, he was equally captivating. What an interesting man, and not at all what you would expect of someone of his stature.

Now given Woodwards past association with bringing down Nixon, and his association with the Washington Post, you would expect the man to be pretty liberal. And who knows, maybe he is, but if so he does a great job of hiding it. Well during the lunch (there were seven of us at the table, as well as Mr. Woodward), we took every opportunity we could to pick the mans brain. After all, it's not every day you get to speak to someone as knowledgeable as Bob Freaking Woodward.

And Bob was equally interested in what we had to say. Bob went around the table and polled us as to whether or not we supported the invasion on Iraq at the time it occured. Not now, at the time it occured. And we were split about 50-50 (okay, with seven people you can't split 50-50, but it was 3 to 4, I just don't remember which way it went). We asked Bob where he stood, fully expecting him to say "I knew it was wrong from the start" but he startled us by saying he was 100% for it from the beginning, and that even though he and the majority of the press corp knew the information wasn't 100% solid, they felt there was plenty of reliable information to support the invasion.

We asked Bob who he supported for president. Like I said earlier, Bob is a very intelligent man, intelligent enough not to let that little gem out.

The question that I got to ask Bob (Jesus Christ, I got to ask Bob Woodward a question) was "A lot of people think George W. Bush is the worst president we have ever had, do you agree". His answer: "A lot of people don't know history" he later went on to say that while he wouldn't likely claim George W. Bush was a good president, in reality he "probably wouldn't make it into the bottom five, and isn't even in the bottom three of the last 100 years". This lead to a discussion as to who was worse than Bush in the last 100 years, and Woodward kept his cards close to his chest on this one. Most of the people at the table listed Jimmy Carter, which Woodward would neither confirm or deny. I feel that he was conflicted on this one, given that his take down of Nixon (whom despite Watergate, Woodward says wasn't one of the bottom three) lead to us getting Jimmy Carter. Afterall, how would you like to be the one who - directly or indirectly - gace us Jimmy Carter.

I did get him to agree that number on on the list of the last 100 years was Woodrow Wilson, but anyone who knows Wilson's history knows that. But again, as Woodward pointed out, not too many people have a real grasp on history, especially history prior to their birth.

The final thing that I thought interesting was his take on Bush. Don't get me wrong, he's in no way a Bush fan, but he does have a unique perspective having interviewed the man several times. As a matter of fact, he had recenly completed a round of interviews for his upcoming book "Bush at War IV", in which he sat with the president for two days asking him over 500 questions about the war (he joked that had he had the opportunity to sit with Clinton for two days, he would have been lucky to get in two questions). This was in fact the most amount of time in the history of the United States that a member of the press has been given access to a sitting president to discuss a single subject.

And keep in mind, Bush At War I, II, and III were NOT love letters to the president, Woodward had been very critical of George Bush and a number of his decisions. So why, we asked, did Bush agree to sit with him for so long? Because, according to Bob Woodward, George W. Bush knows that he is right. Oh, I'm not saying George Bush is right, and neither is Bob Woodward, but he says that on Iraq, George W. Bush has been guided by principle, and feels 100% that he is acting appropriately. I asked if he (Bush) felt that he had ever misled or lied about anything related to the war. Woodward doubted that he did.

Asked if he felt George W. Bush was a principled man, Woodward said that while he didn't always agree with the mans principals, he's never covered a president that was more led by principle than George W. Bush.

Just thought you might find that one interesting.