Personal History

We--that is, reporters and editors from both the Post and Newsweek--had, of course, also met with Dukakis. Throughout the winter and spring, he had made a poor impression in several areas, but especially in national-security policy. His campaign manager called me late in the campaign and said the candidate would like to meet with several of us informally. I went with a group from the Post and Newsweek, hoping we would see a side of Dukakis we hadn't seen before and get to know him a little as an individual. We all sat around his hotel room and he talked, but nothing new was said and nothing personal about his views was revealed.

Despite Bush's campaign, which I disliked, I voted for Bush; I thought Dukakis too inexperienced to govern. It was my only Republican vote for president. After Bush was elected, our relations were unexpectedly cool if not hostile throughout the four years of his administration. I rarely saw him and Barbara, except occasionally in long receiving lines. Perhaps my amicable relations with the Reagans, and with George Shultz, for whom the Bushes had no love, compounded our problems. These cool or antagonistic relationships are part of life in Washington and are accepted as such, but I often think how self-defeating they are and how much better polite professional relations would serve political figures and journalists in situa- tions like this. I agreed with a charming message I got from George McGovern after he had been defeated for the presidency. He recalled making some bitter remarks about a couple of our columnists at a dinner party, but wrote me:

I have regretted that outburst and I have also established that the maximum time I can carry a grudge is about three months. This note is simply to say that I have now forgotten all campaign grudges. It is just too difficult trying to remember which people I'm supposed to shun.

With rare exceptions, I feel strongly that McGovern's rule is an appropriate one for all of us. The longer I live, the more I observe that carrying around anger is most debilitating to the person who bears it.

© 1997