Bill Clinton enjoyed a round of golf yesterday with his old rival turned new buddy, the first President George Bush, in the odd couple's latest outing in front of the cameras. Such a joint appearance would once have looked like a stuffy piece of presidential protocol. For years Mr Clinton was all but the devil incarnate to diehard Republicans after he upset Mr Bush's bid for re-election in 1992. But the atmosphere of the old presidents' club and the pair's recruitment by the White House to be America's co-chief fund raisers for the victims of the Asian tsunami, has forged an intriguing bond.
Yes, they were mismatched, Mr Bush senior conceded recently. But despite their rivalry on the campaign trail, he went on, they had never been hostile. In a rare public and even Clintonian display of sentiment from an essentially private man, he added: "Maybe I'm the father he never had". Mr Clinton's father died in a car accident a few months before the future president was born. Mr Clinton too has been the model of courtesy, regularly deferring to his predecessor's extra 22 years of experience, even though, as a two-term president, he technically trumps Mr Bush.
To the bemusement of his enemies on the Right, on the government 757 jetting across Asia, Mr Clinton insisted on ceding the only bed to his elder travelling companion and sleeping on the floor. "He was very considerate of the old guy. That's me," Mr Bush told the Houston Chronicle. "I mean, like the room on the plane. There was every reason in the world he should have had equal time if not priority, but he insisted. That's a tiny little thing that meant a lot to me." |