'Bush's victory in 2000 sank Blairs' heart'

Wed, May 14 01:15 PM

George W Bush's win over Al Gore in the 2000 US presidential polls 'sank' the hearts of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie, who were concerned over the Republican's grasp of foreign affairs.

"I first met George Bush at Camp David ... shortly after he took over as President. From our visits to Washington we had got to know Al Gore, the Democratic candidate, and his wife Tipper, reasonably well, so I think it's fair to say that our hearts sank when the result was finally ratified," Cherie said.

"We had watched George W on television and felt that he didn't seem comfortable with foreign affairs, yet Tony was determined that they should have a good relationship," she said in her book 'Speaking for Myself', the excerpts of which were published in The Times on Wednesday.

The fact that Bush was a Republican and that Blairs were good friends of former Democratic President Bill Clinton did play on the minds as the two sides prepared to reach out to each other, she suggested.

However, Cherie, whose husband was later regarded by some as Bush's 'poodle' over Iraq and Afghan wars, discovered the US President as a 'very funny, charming man with a quirky sense of humour' during the first interaction between the two families.

Detailing on Blairs' first interaction with the Bush's family, she said: "That first night with the Bushes, we had an early dinner. The meal over, the President said: 'Why don't we all watch a movie?' So we did. "He got all the new releases on DVD, he explained, and that night we watched 'Meet the Parents' with Robert de Niro.

This was the famous occasion when George made the remark about him and Tony having Colgate toothpaste in common," she said.

Cherie said that during their first meeting at the Camp David, Blair and Bush 'got on remarkably well'.

"George is actually a very funny, charming man with a quirky sense of humour. The reason he gets a bad press, he says, is 'because I talk Texan'," she said.

While there had been a slight sense of anxiety before the meeting, by the time Blairs left, the general consensus was that 'he's a guy we can easily get on with.

"We may not agree in terms of domestic politics but in terms of international diplomacy that is largely irrelevant," she said.

Referring to a meeting between the two families a month later at Chequers, Cherie wrote on exchanging different perspectives on 'capital punishment' with the US President.

"I stated my view: that it was inherently wrong and that if you make a mistake you can't put it right. George just said, 'Well, that's not the way it is in America. We take the eye-for-an-eye-view,'" the memoir said.

On how she saw Laura Bush, Cherie wrote: "It was clear that we had common ground; like me, she was interested in other women and women's issues generally. When we met we would talk about our families and about literature, because we share a love of books."

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