George H. Bush and Bill Clinton seem to be unusually chummy. That is, they seem to have developed an actual friendship.
What’s behind this? Is it real or am I too cynical to accept that there isn’t another agenda at play here?
I’m not sure there’s a GQ answer to this. They’ve worked together on a couple of projects in the last few years - tsunami relief and then Katrina relief, if memory serves; the typical humanitarian kind of stuff that ex-Presidents often devote themselves to. I’m not sure what ulterior motives would be in play. I’m sure they both think about their legacies (there’s a term you never stop hearing when it comes to Clinton), but I don’t know what else there is. Clinton can’t be President again, Bush obviously won’t run again, and I doubt it really affects either man’s political party or anything like that.
As George W. Bush noted in an article about them just a day or two ago, they share a very rare common experience. There are only four men out there who used to be President of the United States, and these two followed each other and dealt with some of the same issues. I think they’ve just turned out to be compatible people who like each other.
Ideologically, they weren’t all that far off from each other. They both understood the value of foreign relations and of listening to dissenting opinions. I suppose as long as they steer the discussion away from each other’s families, they’d probably get along quite well.
For some reason I can’t help thinking of the movie “My fellow Americans” With Jack Lemon and James Garner starring…
You nailed that one. I was thinking of the exact same thing.
So then who would be the evil scheming guy trying to kill them?
In other thoughts, does anyone have any evidence that they are friends other than the public service messages they have done together? They may just realize that together they make the perfect representation of bipartisan support for something, even if they do not have a personal relationship.
There was an article in Time magazine a month or so ago on them. It does seem that they have a genuine friendship and that Clinton has a tremendous amount of respect for GHW. You’d never guess it by reading the BBQ Pit here, but Republicans and Democrats can apparently be friends.
From here.
Many Presidents are actually centrists, despite being labeled ‘conservative/right’ or ‘liberal/left’. This is often lost in the cloud of the current relatively extreme right position of the current administration.
We should celebrate the George H and Clinton thing, not be uncomfortable with it.
Oh, forgot to mention:
I’d be more concerned with the fact that Anne Coulter and Bill Mahr and like best buddies. They really are.
There aren’t that many people you can talk about what it’s like to be president with. So Clinton will have to do. 
I choose to believe that their friendship is based on a shared dislike of the current occupant of the Oval Office.
–Cliffy
snerk
I do seriously sometimes wish that Bush41 weren’t such an old-fashioned upper-class gentleman who says no ill of any man in public (unless he’s campaigning…). I’d kill to be a fly on the wall in Kennebunkport sometimes…
The same thing occurred to me, but I couldn’t think of a GQ way to express it. Kudos.
[Simpsons]It’s the most efficient way for them to exchange long-chain protein molecules.[/Simpsons]
They share a mutual chagrin at the current state of the office they left behind. THat pic in the link above shows them crying on each others’ shoulders.
Well, every time they call Carter, he keeps borrowing their tools.
It’s not unheard of. Tip O’Neal and Ronald Reagan were said to be best buddies when they weren’t arguing over politics. James Carville and Mary Maitlin got married and had a kid together. At least Clinton and Bush aren’t that close.
Interestingly, “My Fellow Americans”, which was made in 1996, was inspired by the friendship between Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford after they were out of office. Like George H.W. Bush and Clinton, they had represented opposing parties and run against each other. Carter and Ford supposedly formed their friendship after they both attended the funeral of Anwar Sadat in 1981.
Such as?