First Son

"This is the pre-presidential counterpart to the Draper book. He’s a Texas reporter who covered George Bush’s period as governor. It was one of the first books written about George W and it contains a lot of the most familiar ideas about Bush and the classic family stories. When George was drinking and was basically a bum hanging around in Texas he took his little brother out drinking and then drove him home and drove into some garbage cans. His father came down in his bathrobe and started shouting at him and George W said: “You want to go mano a mano right here?” That story has been reported thousands of times but it comes from here. My view is very much that his latent aggression comes from his relationship with his father. George H was the chosen one of the family – he was an athlete, a war hero, a businessman and was successful in everything that he did. He was the family hero and for George W, the eldest son and sharing his father’s name, it was hard. His career was like a parody of his father’s career. He tried to do everything his father did and failed at all these things. I think his attempt to emulate his father fuelled his drinking and his anger because at some point he decided he couldn’t be like his father. So, that night with the garbage cans, Jeb said: “George hasn’t told you that he’s been accepted to Harvard Business School.” George W said he had no intention of going but he just wanted to prove he could do it without his father’s help. Jeb was younger but he was smart, successful and stable and the family had come to rely on him a lot more. So, when Jeb got ahead the rivalry between the brothers intensified. George W decided to run for governor in part because of Jeb having become the leader of the family."