When someone is elected to the highest office in the land, they inherit a burden most of us cannot fathom.  But along with that burden comes quite a number of privileges that most of us can only dream about.

Those who have been elected and then retired after their terms were up often comment on the experience, including what they missed most after leaving office.  Many say that the use of Air Force One was something they missed more than anything else.  They have a point.  Not having to go through security, having anything you could ever want at your fingertips while flying 35,000 feet above it all would be pretty easy to get used to.

It seems as though living in the White House doesn’t rank real high on the list of things former presidents miss.  Reagan returned to his ranch in California as often as he could.  Clinton found his way to Martha’s Vineyard (amongst other places) often.  George W. came back to Texas and spent time on his ranch in Crawford at every given chance.  Obama had Hawaii.  Trump had his golf courses. Biden spends nearly every weekend in Delaware. Suffice it to say that many found the White House to be a gilded cage they couldn’t wait to escape.

Each of those former Chief Executives were driven around in the safest automobile money and technology could produce, JFK providing the best example of why that would be needed.  No former president is allowed to drive on public roads ever again, once they swear to “Faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”  Say what you will, I’d kind of miss some windshield time in the Fairlane 500 every now and again.

In late December of 2005, while George W. Bush was in office, he and Karl Rove, his chief lieutenant, were in the back of the Presidential Limo on their way to one of a never ending number of public duties when Bush asked Rove if he had any New Year’s resolutions.

Rove admitted that he wanted to rekindle his love of reading.  He’d fallen out of the habit.  He’d set a goal for himself to read one book a week in 2006.

Three days later, they were back in the Cadillac again, heading to some far flung location to do something of importance.  Bush looked over at Rove and said, “I’m on my second.  Where are you?”  The President had turned Rove’s resolution into a contest.  The two of them would have a running competition that would last the final three years of his administration.

The challenge became formalized based on three things:  the number of books read, the number of pages of each book, and the combined size of each book’s pages, or what they defined as “Total Lateral Area”.  During 2006 Bush’s reading heavily favored biographies of accomplished sports figures and famous world ;leaders throughout history.  He read about Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Carnegie, Mark Twain, Babe Ruth, King Leopold, William Jennings Bryan, Huey Long, Lyndon Baines Johnson, and Genghis Khan.

That year fifty-eight of the books he read were nonfiction, nearly half were biography and history.  The rest were split between history and current events.  At the end of 2006, in the back of the Cadillac they compared lists.  Rove had completed 110 books, Bush 95.

At the end of 2007, back in the limo again and comparing lists of the books each had read, Rove won again, 76 to 51.  At the end of Bush’s final year in office, as the Cadillac headed through the vacated streets of DC, Bush again had to accept defeat in the contest.  He’d only read 40 books.  Rove had read 64.  Rove was presented with a trophy that looked like it was an old bowling trophy that had been recycled and a reminder that the only reason he’d won is because Bush had been busy running the free world.

For eight years George W. Bush was made fun of as a Texas hick with a southern twang that only won the office because he was his father’s son.  Folks made fun of his cowboy boots as much as they did his policies.  Critics found his swagger annoying.  Say what you will about any of the above.  There is no doubt that some of the geopolitical moves he made had lasting effects on the world that were not positive.

However, the challenge he gave his lieutenant says something about the man.  That he was willing to read daily and learn from what he read is significant.  The fact that he actually lost the challenge every time, but kept on attempting to better Rove says something about efficiency winning out over ego.   

Looking back a couple decades, it’s quaint that pundits were able to poke fun at his syntax.  Look at the leading candidates for the high office today, neither of whom is able to string together a coherent stream of thought and communicate it to the public, much less an actual vision for the country.

I don’t know if Bush misses being able to drive (not counting the F-150 King Ranch on the spread in Crawford).  But I kind of miss having a president who reads, isn’t afraid to admit when he’s lost a contest, and can go out and clear some brush if he needs to.