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Margo Howard and Franklin Foer

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from: Franklin Foer

George W.'s Frat-Boy Charm

Posted Thursday, Dec. 9, 1999, at 6:03 PM ET

Margo,

Forevermore, I'll think of my glasses and you, dear Prudie. There are so many other matters for which I need your advice. But perhaps it is best that I save them for a more private forum.

On the subject of W.: One cannot fully appreciate his appeal from television debates and Sunday-morning interviews. These settings exaggerate his weaknesses, and that may be a fatal flaw. But there's a reason he has raised $65 million. A whiff of his frat-boy charm is a powerful thing. Or in my case, I got a whiff of his jockish charm. When I interviewed the man, he had just returned from a jog. (Actually, he doesn't really smell.) Approaching the Texas governor's mansion, I heard a voice scream from the beyond the gates, "Hey U.S. News guy." As the gates opened, there was Bush, dripping with sweat in shorts and T-shirt. "I got dressed up just for you." And then pointing a finger at me, he joked, "My odor better be off the record." The next thing I know, he's whisked me through 10 minutes of banter, offered me lunch, and has me sitting out on the patio. Though I had spent hours concocting a strategy for teasing information out of him, he answered my toughest question nearly at the start. None of his answers struck me as especially stupid or brilliant, but rather they were rather convincingly earnest. This question on Bush's intelligence will hover over the campaign, I suspect, for the duration--a matter that will be hashed over in many a Breakfast Table.

Finally, we should update readers on a priceless headline from this morning's Washington Post that has been a subject of much discussion today. As Scott Shuger wrote, it was a "heart-wrenching story about a 9-year-old boy who concealed the accidental death of his mother for a month, leaving her body in their home because he was afraid of being sent to an orphanage, the Post goes with the bad taste headline of the year, century and millennium: "Mother Died, but Boy, 9, Kept Mum." For those who were wondering, later editions of the Post went with a more tasteful "Mother Died, but Boy, 9, Kept Silent."

This week has been a joy, dear Prudie. Glibness is really quite underrated. (Jed Purdy be damned.) But it's back to my job as unironic newsmagazine writer, which has its virtues too. Many thanks. I'm missing you already.

Massa H.

Coming next week: Daniel and David Bell visit the Breakfast Table.

the breakfast table
entries
12345678910111213141516
from: Franklin Foer

George W.'s Frat-Boy Charm

Posted Thursday, Dec. 9, 1999, at 6:03 PM ET
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Margo Howard is "Dear Prudence," Slate's advice columnist. Franklin Foer, a former Slate staff writer, writes about politics for U.S. News & World Report.
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