Posted on 06/11/2006 2:35:59 PM PDT by Kaslin
No, it's not Karl Rove. It's a 26-year-old whiz with no college degree
The only words he ever�says in public are, "This is the official two-minute warning for the press. Two minutes." He delivers them with effortless authority to vast crowds after placing President George W. Bush's note cards or speech text on the podium just so. His declarations sometimes cause networks to go live.
Blake Gottesman, a 26-year-old Texan who met the President when he was dating Bush's daughter Jenna in high school, has the title of personal aide to the President. It's a job that traditionally meant being "body guy" to the chief, the young aide who carries the souvenirs and dispenses the Purell. But Bush is uniquely sensitive about his personal ecology, and Gottesman has blossomed into a systems analyst, gatekeeper and diplomat who serves as the membrane between the President and the rest of the staff.
Gottesman, famous for remembering the names of volunteers, floats above all the political, military and advance-office silos and orchestrates each group's interaction with the President, incorporating preferences and efficiencies learned from other days and other cities. On the road he'll crack a joke if Bush is getting tense.
"If the aide looks nervous, the President will think there's something to be nervous about," Gottesman, who is intensely private even for a Bushie, tells TIME in a rare interview. "So you look calm even when everything is going wrong."
White House Counselor to the President Dan Bartlett calls Gottesman "a walking mood ring," the unquestioned authority on whom the President wants in his limo, what member of Congress he may accept in his office on Air Force One and whether it is wise for a top aide to bring up a particular topic at a particular time. "Blake is so humble and professional that advisers much older than he rely on his advice instead of resenting him," says Reed Dickens, 28, who has filled in for Gottesman.
The President occasionally calls Gottesman "Soldier," needling him for the earpiece he wears to stay in contact with other staff members during presidential events. Lately Bush has been calling him "Harvard" because this fall he will follow in the President's footsteps and enroll in Harvard Business School. Senior adviser Karl Rove describes him as "brilliant," but Gottesman had a notable hurdle: he went to work for the presidential campaign when he was 19, so he didn't finish his undergraduate degree. He found a 1991 Boston Globe article, "Harvard Business School on a High School Diploma," that described cases of successful graduates who had been admitted without finishing college, and he won over admissions officials by outlining the earlier cases in an essay. "I researched not just the precedent but whether I'd be able to hack it and contribute to the classes," Gottesman says. "I talked to a bunch of alumni and current students and decided it was worth a shot." Gottesman scored in one of the top percentiles on his Graduate Management Admission Test. He also got into Stanford's business school.
Like his predecessors, he's at the President's elbow with a Sharpie pen for autographs. But sharing Bush's love for streamlined systems, he also developed a faster thank-you-note process. Gottesman collects artifacts for a future presidential library, down to the whistles Bush blows to start the White House Easter Egg Roll. Since it's hard for the President to receive mail, Gottesman takes to work the catalogs he receives at home so that when the two have downtime on Air Force One, the President can choose running shoes and fishing gear, which Gottesman then orders online.
The President sometimes barks at him just because he's there and can take it. At Bush's ranch, Gottesman, who makes $95,000 a year, sleeps in the senior-staff trailer, where he gets teased for his array of hair- and skin-care products in the shared bathroom.
Rove says that when Bush wants a staff member to follow up with a member of Congress, Gottesman not only conveys the message but also checks to make sure the loop has been closed. "People as a matter of course say, 'I better make certain Blake knows that I've finished that,'" Rove says. "The President and he think alike so much that he can literally go through and underline a new draft of the President's speech to hit the emphasis points in the way that the President would."
Gottesman will be succeeded by Jared Weinstein, 26, the chief of staff's aide for the past three years. The two are housemates and frequently carpool to the White House--after waking up around 4 a.m.
I don't know, Vincinte Fox?
Wishing him all the best!
Well, I think it's rather simple really. He's just a good little globalist doing what good little globalists do.
I wish it weren't true, but I give up trying to look for the silver lining on this issue any longer.
Sounds like quite a kid. (I can say that, I'm twice his age). Some snarky comments, though. Wonder what they'd have said about him if this was about an aide to Clinton or (((shudder))) Gore or Kerry?
"Bushie"?
Time. Formerly a serious news magazine.
Nice job for dating one of the first daughters. 95K a year? What's Jenna's phone #.....LOL
The snarkiness does stand out. Were the President a (D), his aide's lack of undergraduate degree would have been painted as evidence of his innate brilliance and being a self-made man, without need of a mere piece of paper.
Here, it's meant to reflect negatively on (their words) the "intellectually incurious" president.
I think the young man sounds terrific, and I wish him a brilliant future.
What does Vincente Fox have to do with this?
Until the future of our nation is secure, it has something to do with every subject.
It must be great to have one of the coolest jobs in the World. Also, I bet he is the type not to write a tell all book either. A trait that is not shared by people much older and with much more education.
I guess we don't need all these different threads, then. Then maybe we can rename the site Immigration Republic.
I understand your position, but it gets old seeing it plastered on unrelated threads.
My safest bet would be God.
I'd appriciate it if you wouldn't try to kidnap my thread
***What does Vicente Fox have to do with this?***
You are absolutely spot on. The answer is...nothing. The question was: who knows Bush's mind the best? Try Laura. Or his dad. Or Andrew Card. Or Josh Bolton or Karl Rove or Karen Hughes or Don Evans. Or the young man in the story.
Being against Bush's ideas on the Illegal Immigration mess seems to cause Bush Derangement Syndrome from the Right.
Why else claim that Vicente Fox knows the mind of George Bush better than anyone? If you want a foreign leader to consider for an answer, you could pick Tony Blair or Junichero Koizumi or John Howard. But clearly none of them know Bush the way his family, friends and coworkers do.
What a crock. (Not you, Kaslin, you spotted the crock right off.)
I'm sorry. I don't see what any of this has to do with abortion. Or gas prices.
Maybe he's a Vicente Fox impersonator.
Pretty impressive for a 26 year old. This guy could have a bright future ahead of him.
Thanks. I just find it outrageaous when some try to take a thread over with things that have nothing to do with the article at all
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