I believe now as I posted a long time ago, George Bush must be understood first in terms of his conversion experience. He is truly a believing Christian and judges political activity from that perspective, not the other way around. I think this is where his "compassion" finds its source and energy. But when that compassion moves his Christian heart, he does not stay his hand because his remedy conflicts with earthly conservative values. If those values can be accommodated fine, if not, too bad.
Next, Bush is a family man, vertically as well as horizontally. He honors his father and mother and cherishes his wife. He sees the world from this safe haven.
He is committed to loyalty, up and down. He gives it and expects it. This makes him shrink from pulling the trigger on liabilities like the director of the CIA. More, there is a certain noblesse oblige character to this which makes him susceptible to other members of the exclusive club, read, Clinton. All of these noble commitments leave little scope for party or for partianship. So he does not comprehend the damage he does to the party and to the nation's legacy when he undermines the heartfelt objection of his party's faithful to the crimes and peccadillo's of Clinton by embracing him and his wife. Bush judges his own actions in publicly embracing Clinton according to Christian doctrines of forgiveness.
So it is with his whole approach to governance.
