(This update courtesy of the Media Research Center.)
by Brent Baker
“Journeys with George,” the documentary of George W. Bush
on his campaign bus and plane made by NBC News producer Alexandra
Pelosi, the daughter of former House Minority Whip Nancy Pelosi,
debuted on Tuesday night on HBO.
The film, which Pelosi made with a video camera while she was
assigned to the Bush campaign for 18 months as NBC's only staffer
covering him full time, is supposed to be pretty entertaining from
what I've heard and the White House and other Bush friends have
come around to the view that it helps Bush since it makes him seem
to be a regular guy — at least that's their spin now that the
film is about to go public.
Pelosi isn't hiding her left-wing political leanings or the
negative view she had of Bush before meeting him. HBO's Web page
for the film describes her as a “left coast liberal.” On CNN's
NewsNight on Monday night, Pelosi conceded: “I was indoctrinated
in the Democratic Party, so I came into this with a really sort of
not the best impression of George Bush going into it and in the
end I found him to be still really a decent guy.”
But probably no more respect for his conservative policy
positions.
A story in the October 1 Washington Post suggested Pelosi both
expressed and repressed her liberal predilections:
“In one scene, Pelosi, who is the daughter of House Minority
Whip Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and who made no secret of her liberal
politics, was talking to Bush about why she should vote for him.
She asked about the hungry, the unemployed and the homeless. 'Are
you going to look out for the little guy?' she baited.
“'I'm a little guy,' he said. 'Have you noticed? I'm about
5-11. My brother is 6 foot 3.'
“Pelosi said in an interview that she did not dwell on
unflattering moments and omitted plenty of Bush's verbal
cartwheels. But she acknowledges that the film will bolster some
people's misgivings about the president's intellectual heft.
Pressed about what the movie shows about Bush, she says, 'You're
going to get me in trouble.'
“Nevertheless, White House aides say they are convinced the
film humanizes Bush, and one senior official ventured to predict
that it would help him get reelected. Karen P. Hughes, part of
Bush's 'iron triangle' of top campaign aides, said it shows that
he 'enjoys having fun during downtime, which I think people will
appreciate, and that he does not take himself too seriously, even
though he takes his job seriously.'”
The Post story added that the HBO executive who bought the
film assumed Bush “was an ogre.” The story, which was unbylined
because of a byline strike at the time, relayed: “Sheila Nevins,
HBO's executive vice president of original programming, is a
liberal Democrat but said she found Pelosi's Bush to be charming.
'I had thought he was an ogre,' she said. 'I didn't know he was so
quick on the uptake.'”
For the HBO page about the film, with a promo for it in
RealPlayer and QuickTime formats click here.
