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continued from page one “It was a nice place for me to go because I’m kind of in tune to daycare and the need for daycare,’ she said. Daycare also happens to be a major issue in the presidential campaign, and one which the Bush campaign is hoping it could use to narrow the “gender gap’’ — the difference between men and women who are likely to vote for Mr. Bush. Mrs. LeBlond explained she did not talk much about the issues during her ap pearances, however, and that her job essentially is to show the family flag in as many places as possible. She said that campaigning did not come easy to her at first because ‘‘basically, I used to be very shy.’’ But when it comes to getting her father voted into to the most powerful elective office in the world, a more assertive aspect of her nature shines through. Mrs. LeBlond said she was “relentless’’ as chairman of the Bush for President cam paign in her hometown of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, and because of her organizing, ‘“‘we had 156 George Bush supporters show up in a town that never had more than 35 of 40 people ever come to a caucus. ‘The other thing I made sure of was that every single delegate and alternate to the state convention would be a George Bush supporter,’’ she added. ‘And so my father now laughs and says, ‘What hap pened to my shy little girl?’ you know, because I kicked these people off, the people who were for Bob Dole and other people,’ Mrs. LeBlond said. ‘Now they all say that I’ve gone absolutely ballistic on everybody, but there’s nothing I want more right now than to see my father President of the United States — I'll do anything.”’ That sense of loyalty, which her father so amply demon strated during the most trying moments of the Reagan Presidency, is a Bush family trait that each generation has taught through example to the succeeding one. Mrs. LeBlond said that it is often painful to read and hear criticisms of her father in the media, especially when they run counter to her firsthand knowledge of him. But she cheered her father on when he had a chance to win some points of his own in a well publicized encounter with CBS News anchorman Dan Rather. The two men had sparred during a live television broadcast over an alleged breach of agreed-upon ground rules for Mr. Rather’s in terview of Mr. Bush. Mrs. LeBlond recalled, ‘I’m sitting at home watching this, and all of a sudden it just escalated into this huge thing, and I was saying, ‘Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh,” and I’m screaming for my husband, ‘Billy, Billy, you’ve got to come see this,’ because I just couldn’t believe it.” ‘Well, two seconds later the phone rings and it’s Dad, and I said, ‘Dad, that was so un believable, and he said, and this was so typical of him, he said, ‘Doro, listen, I’m really worried about your car because I heard you broke down. Is everything all right, did you get it fixed?” — “So then I asked him if he was still in his office,’’ Mrs. LeBlond continued, ‘‘and he said that he was, and finally he asked, ‘Well, what did you think? How'd I do?” — “And I said to him, ‘Dad, that was unbelievable, you were great. The Vice’ President’s daughter said she can usually handle criticism of her father no matter how painful it is because “‘he’s the candidate and all that intense scrutiny is part of it. But what really gets to her, she said, is when unkind things are said by or through the media about her mother, Barbara Bush. References to Mrs. Bush’s premature gray hair and “matronly’’ figure have abounded, and a par ticularly sharp jab came from NBC Today show host Jane Pauley, who commented that while George Bush, who is a year older than his wife, was “man of the ’80s,”’ Barbara Bush was ‘‘a woman of the '40s. “That was horrible and just really mean,’’ Mrs. LeBlond said. “It really kills me when things are said about my mother’s looks because she always is neat and clean and beautiful — and she really is beautiful.”’ ‘“‘She’s a fantastic lady, and there’s not a superficial bone in her body,’’ she said. ‘‘She’s so natural, so frank and has the greatest sense of humor, and is such a huge asset to my father.” ‘America’s going to fall in love with Barbara Bush,”’ she predicted. According to Mrs. LeBlond, there would be a marked contrast between the Reagan and a Bush White House, largely because of the dif ferences in style there would be between the two first ladies. ‘I know that it will be much more family oriented, much more relaxed and much more casual,’’ she said, ‘‘and there will be barbecues and hor seshoes and sports — lots of sports.”’ Mrs. Bush already has told her children that none of them could move into the White House, according to Mrs. LeBlond, but she also has already invited them to ‘‘visit often.” In a time when a candidate’s devotion to family and traditional ‘‘family values” have become almost an acid test in recent elections, George Bush does not need any coaching on how to project the appropriate image, according to his daughter. “A lot of politicians talk about family values and all that,’’ she said, ‘“‘but George Bush really lives his family values. He’s taught me things like decency and honesty and loyalty, but he’s also taught me that family is number one. Mrs. LeBlond has a favorite story she likes to tell about her father which she believes illustrates his devotion to family. It was 1984 and Mr. Bush was making a campaign swing through Connecticut. Mrs. LeBlond was in Green wich Hospital, her son, Samuel, having been born six hours earlier. “T was standing in my room, I didn’t have any clothes on, as I had just gotten up for the first time, and the nurse looks out the window and said, ‘oh my Gosh, I see some German shepherds and policemen and men in suits and millions of cars. “So I’m standing there and can hardly walk, and [I said, ‘Oh my God, that’s my dad,’ and so I started running to the bathroom and the nurse said, “You can’t do that,’ and I said, ‘I have to, I have to.’ And so I ran and put my nightgown on and grabbed my bathrobe and seconds later there was a knock on the door, and there he was. “It was so funny, because here he comes with the Secret Service and this whole en tourage, and I’m _ thinking about all those poor mothers wondering about what’s happening in the middle of the maternity ward.”’ ‘“‘Now, I know it’s not unusual for a father to see his daughter after she has a baby, but he was busy campaigning, two hours away in Hartford, and yet he found time to come to the hospital literally hours after I gave birth.”’ “It just showed me that we, his family, we’re the most important thing in his life.”’ Campaigning for their father has always been a thread that has bound the Bush children together, according to Mrs. LeBlond. ‘We've become closer and closer because we're all concerned about the same thing. We all desperately want to reach the same goal, and we all care so much about our parents,”’ she said. Mrs. LeBlond said that ‘dinner with the Bush family always involves ‘‘major political talk,’’ and that such get-togethers could have a role to play in the Vice President’s success as a candidate. “It’s great for Dad because we're able to fill him in on the local stuff that’s going on in our particular states. I mean, we have Maine, Texas, Florida, Colorado and Virginia, and all of us our involved.” All five Bush children were delegates to the Republican National Convention from their respective states. Prior to the convention, they came to their father’s aid at a crucial moment, after he placed third in the Iowa caucuses, behind Bob Dole and Pat Robertson, and was badly in need of a victory in the New Hampshire primary. And so they mobilized friends and relatives. Jeb flew up from Florida with 120 supporters and handed out oranges door-to-door in Manchester. Young cousins and nieces stuffed envelopes and drew colorful signs. In all, about 20 Bush relatives and countless friends shoveled snow and carried grocery bags for prospective voters, and did just about anything else they could think of to help out. And in the end, George Bush won a decisive victory that gave him a momentum he never would lose. We'd like to be able to help Dad do it again and become president,’’ Mrs. LeBlond said. “There’s nothing more im portant to us at this moment.” Tides at Captain Harbor Low Tide photo / Jacko Day
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Greenwich News
Greenwich, Connecticut, US
Thu, Sep 22, 1988
Page 28
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