Five days before the terrorism of Sept. 11, 2001, turned President Bush's attention toward Afghanistan and Iraq and away from Mexico, the former Texas governor played host to Mexican President Vicente Fox and his wife at the White House -- for, symbolically on Bush's part, the first State dinner that he would host. The president's promise of immigration reform turned quickly to a preoccupation with terrorism. White House photo by Eric Draper.
by Mark Silva
Vicente Fox, the former president of Mexico, has some interesting words for President Bush in his new autobiography: "The cockiest guy I have ever met.''
The book pokes fun at the former Texas governor's stumbling Spanish and cowboy bravado.
Fox, who retired in December after a six-year term, worked closely with Bush on immigration and trade, and Bush had placed both high in his priorities for his first year in office, before terrorism consumed the White House agenda. The two leaders referred to each other publicly as "amigos," but their alliance soured after the Sept. 11 attacks turned Washington's attention toward Iraq and Afghanistan and away from Latin America.
Fox, like Bush, is a rancher. And they were both governors. In his new book, Revolution of Hope, Fox writes about their first meeting in 1996 - when they were governors of their states: "My first impression of George W. Bush was one of total self-confidence. He is quite simply the cockiest guy I have ever met in my life.''
He noted, however, that Bush, during that first encounter in Austin, Tex., was "a bit sheepish as he tried out his grade-school-level Spanish.''
This is the thanks that Bush gets for making his first foreign trip as president to Mexico, in February 2001, and for holding his first State dinner at the White House, on Sept. 6, 2001, in honor of the Mexican president? At a press conference with Fox in San Cristobal, Mex., on Feb. 16, 2001, Bush rolled out some of that "grade-school" Spanish: "Muchos gracias, amigo, el Presidente de Mexico. Su recepcion tan calida refleja el grande amistad entre nuestros pueblos. Me hace sentir que estoy entre familia. Thank you very much.''
The presidents and first ladies dancing at the '01 State dinner. WH Photo/Draper
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Comments
"This is the thanks that Bush gets for making his first foreign trip as president to Mexico, in February 2001..?"
So Vincente Fox tells the truth... should he do what the Right Wing does? Lie and distort the truth?
Posted by: Lauren | September 22, 2007 6:43 AM
Grade school Spanish?
How about his grade
school English?
Posted by: thomas | September 22, 2007 7:27 AM
'cockiest guy... ever met'..
Who should be suprised.
Posted by: RomanB | September 22, 2007 8:39 AM
Fox got that right.
Dubya is the ultimate axample of "The Peter Principle."
Posted by: Doug Zook | September 22, 2007 8:40 AM
thomas,
That's so funny, because it's so true!
Posted by: Doug Zook | September 22, 2007 8:52 AM
In Texas they have the expression:
"He's all hat and no cattle."
Posted by: Kenny Bunkport | September 22, 2007 8:52 AM
This from the former Mexican president who presided over what some experts call one of the most corrupt regimes
in that country's history? Obviously, Fox has a lot of credibility. Hopefully, in the book he describes the detailed steps he took to stem the tide of illegal emigres.
Posted by: Jose C. | September 22, 2007 12:10 PM
I'll add a big...YA THINK??
Posted by: bill r. | September 22, 2007 12:32 PM
Didn't Fox also say that Bush is afraid of horses?
Posted by: Patsy | September 22, 2007 4:01 PM
Bush cocky? How about just plain STUPID!!!
Posted by: Peggy Lucas | September 22, 2007 7:30 PM
As usual, the Swamp reporter takes half sentences out of context to smear President Bush.
As even the NY Times has reported, Vicente Fox intended the sentence as a COMPLIMENT, not a put-down. And Fox thinks highly of President Bush, exactly the opposite of what the Swamp reporter tries to imply. From the NY Times article:
"But when it comes to Mr. Bush himself, Mr. Fox seems charmed. He labels him “the cockiest guy I have ever met in my life,” a remark clearly meant as a compliment. “Bush evokes the go-getter qualities I’ve always admired in Americans,” Mr. Fox wrote.
He wrote in the English-language memoir that he had not expected Mr. Bush to go from governor to president, although Mr. Fox explained that was because he was among many of those who underestimated Mr. Bush. “Those who see only the George W. Bush of the surface — the cocky, simplistic, baseball-loving son of an ex-president who went in six years from never having won a political race to the presidency of the most powerful nation on the planet — miss the core of inner resolve behind those sharp blue eyes,” he wrote.
Although he labeled Mr. Bush’s Spanish “grade school level” when they first met in Mr. Bush’s governor’s office in Texas in 1996 — “Cómo estás, amigo?” Mr. Bush had said — Mr. Fox said it improved over time and was one sign of what he considered Mr. Bush’s cultural sensitivity."
One has to wonder: did the Swamp reporter even read Fox's book? Or did he rely on misleading news reports about the book?
For the full NY Times article, see http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/21/world/americas/21mexico.html
Posted by: Bruce | September 22, 2007 8:02 PM
He is still not too good in Spanish. bush has however improved in other areas. He became a heavier reader and now has finish all the "goat" books. You can see that in all his BS (baaaS) statements.
Posted by: Ken | September 23, 2007 8:54 AM
Fox's adminstration wasn't the most corrupt govt Mexico has known. You must be referring to the govt of Carlos Salinas de Gortari who was elected in 1988 in a Diebold-like election.
He siphoned off millions of dollars for himself and his brother.
Bush held a state dinner on 6 September 2001 where he seemed preoccupied with terrorism because he knew what was coming in 5 days.
He's a traitor like the rest of his family.
Posted by: matt | September 23, 2007 10:27 AM
Mexico seems to be the role model for the Bush section of the Republican Party. We have a tax system designed to create an oligarchy similar to Mexicos. The same tax system plus our shipping all manufacturing jobs to the lowest labor markets has our workers on the way to peonage. By the middle of the century the two countries may be equal opportunity employers with the peons on both sides of the border equally cheap labor.
Posted by: c. perry | September 23, 2007 2:30 PM
Hey Republics:
Fox is obviously a bigger man than Bush.
How does that make you feel?
Posted by: C.Morris | September 23, 2007 7:57 PM
Fox hit the nail on the head.
But Fox is not the only one. A Fla Rep and former close friend of the Bush family said once that George and his brother are the most arrogant people he ever met.
Posted by: Jimmy | September 24, 2007 2:47 PM