It's About Time... And Time's New Cover Photo

Hey, Time editorial board! Am I supposed to be impressed that it's taken six freakin' years for this photo to grace your cover? Am I supposed to be grateful that you've finally recognized the Republican party's... um, backsided approach to governing? Six years... make that seven (including the 1999 campaign year pandering). For example:

TIME: What was the most important thing about your family legacy?

Bush: The unconditional love I got from my family liberated me. It gave me a sense of security. We were all at a church in Maine recently and the preacher asked whether anyone in the congregation had a perfect family, and the only hand that went up without hesitation was Dad's. It helped Jeb and me not be afraid of defeat.

TIME: Your family legacy surely also pushed you into politics?

Bush: Yes, my heritage is part of who I am, and that certainly included politics. But my dad didn't take me in the backyard and hit a tackling dummy to make me a great tackler, and he also didn't do things to try to make me a politician.

TIME: When did you decide you wanted to go into politics?

Bush: I've been searching my mind for that because people keep questioning that. Up to age 18 never much. I was never a member of the Young Republican Club on campus. I was apolitical. My interest in politics was the result of carrying signs for Dad. I love campaigns. My decision to run came from being concerned about what was happening. In 1978, I was concerned about things like the natural-gas regulation, so I ran for Congress. I ran for Governor because I was concerned about what was happening to education. It took sparks like that to get me to run, not just that it was expected of me.

TIME: But surely it was also because it was bred into your bones?

Bush: I don't know. That's an interesting question. Perhaps. I didn't have this life plan. I wasn't trying to turn the DKE presidency into a political career. I didn't know what I wanted to be, and I tried a variety of different things, like working in the oil industry, in campaigns, in a poverty program. You don't have to go into politics to complete a legacy.

TIME: Some say you got more from your mother than your father.

Bush: Yes, I'm more like my mom sometimes. I'm quick with a quip. Dad gives me advice when I ask him for it, my mom when I don't. She can be blunt, like me. She says what she wants. My dad's always gracious.

TIME: You were elected Governor in 1994, the year your brother Jeb lost the Florida Governor's race. How did your family feel?

Bush: On the morning of my inauguration, my mother hands me this letter from Dad with a pair of his cufflinks. He called them his most treasured possession. They were the cufflinks his dad gave to him when he went off to war in 1943. At first I didn't think about the continuity, the grandfather part. A lot was going on. The main thing I thought was that it was from my dad. He was saying he was proud of me. But later I reread the letter and thought about it. It ended with, "Now it's your turn." It was a powerful moment.

TIME: That day your father told the press, "Our heads are in Texas, but our heart is in Florida." What do you think Jeb was feeling?

Bush: I remember at the inauguration Dad wiping a tear from his face and Jeb standing behind me looking pensive. He was the one supposed to win. I'm not sure what he was thinking. I suspect he thought about what might have been, what went wrong.

Before we shut down The Way Back Machine...
Back in 1999...

Bush is the son of a man who ran four times. He knows what it means to hang up your life in the closet and pack your heart and health and conscience into a carry-on bag, and then set out for the airport and never look back. It wouldn't be much fun. He wasn't sure he was ready. And he wasn't sure the time was right.

Funny thing about timing, though. It turns out that this may be the perfect time for a candidate with doubts. People like him without knowing much about him because he doesn't seem to want it too much. What could be more appealing, coming after a President who started running before he could walk and seemed willing to sacrifice anyone to win and hold onto the White House? And how better to reach out to voters who think the system is rotten but are too detached even to be disgusted anymore? Bush's wife Laura has the campaign slogan for the Age of Indifference: "You know, it doesn't matter," she told TIME. "If he wins, it'll be great. If he doesn't, we still have a life."

And this was your cover photo:




Way too little, Time. And way too late.

It's about timing, Time.

Best bar bet in the world: Delilah didn't do it.
Judges 16:19-- And she made him (Samson) sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head.