Windshield Cowboy

George W. Bush likes to project himself as a manly man, always strutting around for the cameras, especially when he can put on a military uniform for a photo op. He likes to talk like an Old West Sheriff, giving righteous ultimatums to villains. However when the posse forms, he is not one of the riders. During the Vietnam War, he took advantage of pulled strings to jump the waiting list for National Guard pilot training, in spite of marginal test scores, and was trained to fly an obsolete training plane that could not be used in combat. At college, he wore a uniform - as a member of the cheerleading squad.

In a letter he made public on September 11, 2003, Bush wrote, "One of the paintings I selected for the Oval Office portrays a man on horseback, leading a charge up a steep hill. His face is full of purpose and determination, and it is clear he expects to get the job done. The painting is called "A Charge to Keep," based on a Methodist hymn that's a favorite of mine, "A Charge to Keep I Have."

We always hear about "the ranch", where Bush spends his record breaking amount of vacation time. Reporters seem to be confined to one small spot for reporting from the ranch - you always see the reporter speaking to the camera with the same picturesquely weathered somewhat dilapidated outbuilding in the background. We never see the lavish residence with all the elaborate "security upgrades" we have purchased for George. During the month long vacation he took the August before 9/11, we saw him trying to cut a log with a chain saw, in an apparent attempt to imitate Ronald Reagan. But unlike Reagan and many other Presidents, we have never seen Bush on horse back.

Aparently the "ranch" has no horses and Bush is what wife Laura calls a "windshield cowboy", driving a pickup truck instead of a horse. I have been curious about this horseless cowboy story for some time and finally did a Google and found the "Post your pictures of Bush on horseback" site. Included there is a picture of Cheney on horseback. The replies are worth reading, including a lot of Bush apologists and a comment that it is particularly strange that the rich Bush twins never even owned a horse; but most enjoyable are the pictures of Bush on horseback - one on a wooden hobbyhorse and two on what appears to be a fake horse in a photography studio.

The site is at: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1309596/posts.