Several reader emails to the effect: “Mr Derbyshire–You are a godless twerp for looking down on GWB because he’s a born-again Christian. I have dropped you from my will, etc., etc.”

For goodness’ sake calm down. While I may indeed be a godless twerp, I don’t in the least mind GWB’s being a born-again Christian, or think the less of him for it. I just think he too often relies on his spiritual convictions as a substitute for thought. That’s fair comment, and several other Cornerites have said the same thing. ( E.g. a couple of weeks ago, Mark Krikorian, asked to explain GWB’s deep not-getting-it on the immigration thing, gave it as his opinion that he thinks GWB believes it is un-Christian to stop poor Mexicans seeking work in the US.)

Larry Henry makes some much better points:

“John—I do not object to your characterization of George W. as a ‘rich kid’ in aspect, but must point out that the Bushes are not really rich. Bit of trivia from New England: That nice place in Kennebunkport? Used to belong to Poppy’s tight-fisted old aunt. Just before her death she consented to sell it to him, this would be in about 1958-59. George Senior, then a Congressman, was pinched for funds and had to scrounge and scramble everywhere to pull together what was then the collossal sum of about $220,000 (as I remember).
“Nice though it is, you wouldn’t want to live in Kennebunkport in the winter, and the Bushes don’t. When George 41 retired from the White House, he and Barbara settled into a quite ordinary house in Texas.
“Now, John Forbes Kerry, there’s a guy who just drips rich-kidness.
“You wonder what’s better, by the by. Bill Clinton absolutely dripped poor-boy insecurities — his father literally died in a ditch.”

[Derb] Larry has me dead to rights on Clinton. Sure, poor kids can be awful, and there are even particular kinds of awfulness characteristic of poor kids. No doubt about it. Still, other things equal, net-net I think that rich-kid neuroses are more handicapping to the judgment than poor-kid ones. If you want to put Clinton in one side of the balance, I’ll put Coolidge and Reagan in the other.