How does he find the time?

July 22, 2005

Five years ago, during the 2000 presidential campaign, the Los Angeles Times obtained Governor George W. Bush’s daily schedule, and found some interesting patterns about a guy who really doesn’t like to work very hard.

[Bush] focused on a few issues, preferred short meetings and insisted on a two-hour midday break centered on a rejuvenating run…. Bush’s daily schedule often allows for a two-hour break around noon. “Gov time” or “private time” on the calendar usually meant a three-mile jog at a 7 1/2-minute pace.

It seemed a little odd that the chief executive of one of the nation’s largest states could manage to take such a lengthy break, every day. Then again, Texas’ system doesn’t mandate too much from its governor, particularly when the legislature isn’t in session, so it’s not completely unreasonable to imagine Bush finding the time to leave the office every afternoon for a three-mile jog.

Surely, as president of the United States, Bush’s priorities and schedule would change, right? As Jonathan Chait noted today, Bush seems far more focused on fitness than, well, anything.

A week ago, when President Bush met with Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III to interview him for a potential Supreme Court nomination, the conversation turned to exercise. When asked by the president of the United States how often he exercised, Wilkinson impressively responded that he runs 3 1/2 miles a day. Bush urged him to adopt more cross-training. “He warned me of impending doom,” Wilkinson told the New York Times.

Am I the only person who finds this disturbing? I don’t mean the fact that Bush would vet his selection for the highest court in the land in part on something utterly trivial. That’s expected. What I mean is the fact that Bush has an obsession with exercise that borders on the creepy.

Chait raises a good point.

When an airplane accidentally entered DC airspace, Bush was bike riding. When a gunman shot at the White House in 2001, Bush was exercising. On the morning of 9/11, Bush had gone for a long run with a reporter. This seems like more than a coincidence.

I’m all for fitness (as long as I don’t actually have to work out), but how, exactly, does the leader of the free world have so much time for recreational exercise? You don’t suppose the president just fobs off the real work on his aides, do you?

As Chait put it:

It’s nice for Bush that he can take an hour or two out of every day to run, bike or pump iron. Unfortunately, most of us have more demanding jobs than he does.

Hey, jogging is hard work. It’s hard work! Hard work!

Now watch this drive.

  • George Bush has a somewhat shadowed history of alcohol dependence and a drug-use problem that he has said he simply will not discuss.

    He claims that his recovery–his commitment to stop using and abusing–began with and is maintained by divine intervention. While this is a nice story, those who understand drug and alcohol abuse and dependence call this sort of go-it-alone sobriety delusional.

    The adoption of singular focus on a few ritual substitutes for alcohol and drugs, to the point that they induce a new kind of dependence, can be just as dangerous to the person. Worse, they can hold at bay the kinds of honesty with self and others that lead to humility, and recognition that nobody’s ever recovered, merely in a process of recovering.

    Praying and exercising in moderation can be part of a healthy person’s life. Moderation is the key.

    We have just fininshed the 26th week of the second term of GW Bush. One hundred eighty two weeks to go. He’s brittle. He’s combative. He’s totally self-assured. He’s a fool.

  • Cheney and Rove like it when he’s out jogging……they don’t have to worry too much about what he is going to say.

  • I think we should all be thankful W takes 2-3 hours off every day for whatever reason. Imagine how much worse off the country would be if he were to spend an additional 10-15 hours per week working.

  • And nobody’s even mentioned his usual month off in August to go to Crawford and “clear brush”. Maybe we should start calling him Georges just to piss him off.

  • What’s the point of creating a republican dynasty if you don’t live to see it through?

  • Well, now we know running is not all that it’s cracked up to
    be. Doesn’t do a thing for the brain.

  • Hark,

    Exercising does help the brain. The problem with Bush’s is that Karl Rove doesn’t exercise.

  • I don’t mind the fact that Bush has a good exercise routine and wish that I was that dedicated myself, but I think that he should also dedicate himself to exercising his grey matter. Does anyone know what Bush does between his running and his duties at the White House, you know the sort of activities that the rest of do in pursuit of bettering ourselves, things like hobbies and reading. He probably stands in front of a mirror and tells himself how great he is.

  • Don’t forget he went fishing after he got the 8/6/2001 intelligence briefing about Al Qaeda.

    And I think that cutting brush in the middle of August in Texas is dumb.

    This is the same guy that has held only four state dinners in five years. He has an opportunity to invite the most interesting and successful people in any walk of life from anywhere in the world to the White House but he’d rather watch tv and hit the hay at 9.

    • Comments are closed.