Bush believes he was called by God to lead the nation at this time, says Commerce Secretary Don Evans, a close friend who talks with Bush every day. His history degree from Yale makes him mindful of the importance of the moment. He knows he's making ''history-changing decisions,'' Evans says. But Bush doesn't keep a diary or other personal record of the events that will form his legacy. Aides take notes, but there's no stenographer in most meetings, nor are they videotaped or recorded.
It's not Bush's religious visions that give me pause here -- although, quite frankly, they do; I've never liked being around people who are so certain of God's opinions -- but the whole bit of secrecy involving the Presidency that is at the heart of this administration. True, no President really likes the press, and generally administrations try to keep their cards hidden at all times; but the degree to which this administration wants to keep everyone in the dark as to what's going on is truly awe-inspiring. Historians are going to have a hell of a time chronicling the years of Bush the Younger, between Bush's decision to keep Presidential papers off-limits indefinitely and his obvious lack of introspection that leads him to reject even the most standard types of record-keeping.
Hell, Bush's own father -- Bush the Elder -- kept diaries and notes during his Presidency, and later generated at least one book (A World Transformed) about the seminal events of his years in office. Somehow I can't see Bush the Younger ever being interested in history enough to put his own pen to paper, and he doesn't seem sympathetic at all to the other people who will have such interests.
I think it's going to be fascinating, twenty or thirty years from now, to see what Presidential historians make of this man.
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