Did you hear the one about Jenna Bush interviewing Bill Clinton? No, this is not a joke. Last year, NBC’s Today Show hired George W. Bush’s daughter, Jenna Bush Hager, a teacher, as an occasional correspondent. She recently sat down for a chat with Clinton. It was aw-shucks softball all the way. One revealing thing: Jenna confessed that her grandfather, George H.W. Bush, considers Bill virtually one of the family.
” They love you,” said Hager. “In fact, they joke that you’re my grandfather’s stepson … because he talks about you more than he talks about anyone else in the family.”
Aside from what this says about the continued diminishment of the corporate-owned media (Today does consider itself at least in part a news program) it also speaks volumes about the country’s growing love affair with the idea of dynasty and quasi-monarchy. And it holds out the promise of what may become a ping-pong of Bush-Clinton in the White House. Though Hillary did not (yet) make it to the top, she got awfully close, and still might—she would be 69 at election time 2016, or about nine months younger than Reagan was at his election). And then there’s Jeb Bush, who is now one of the GOP’s bright lights and barnstorming the country as a top party spokesman. And Jeb’s son, George P. Bush, who aspires to a political career. (this newest version of three generations of “George Bush” is serving in the Naval Reserve as an intelligence officer, thereby continuing another longstanding Bush family tradition—Navy and spy work.)
Finally, this Bush-Clinton coziness should be seen in the context of little-understood financial and political interests that have made a practice of taking care of, and essentially co-opting, Republicans and Democrats alike. For more on this, please see our WhoWhatWhy investigative articles along the right-hand side of this site.
