Bush’s shoulder to cry on

There is a must-read account of George W. Bush’s private mood in the New York Times this morning. Robert Draper, who has interviewed the president for a new book coming out next week, reveals that Bush is more introspective than he appears in public. 

Bush tells Draper, “I’ve got God’s shoulder to cry on, and I cry a lot”. Emphasising the point, he says “I’ll bet I’ve shed more tears than you can count as president.”

The final purpose of the Bush presidency is, Bush claims, “To get us in a position where the presidential candidates will be comfortable about sustaining a presence [in Iraq]”. Bush is optimistic that by late fall enough progress will be apparent for this to be the case. But he’s realistic about how much he can turn around the public mood; recognising that he’s “been here too long” and that each “time I start painting a rosy picture, it gets criticized and then it doesn’t make it on the news.”