Have you seen all those article and pictures of Bush "at home on the ranch" in Crawford - the ones that imply that he is "just an ole ranch hand" more comfortable on the family homestead than in the "Big City," be it Austin or D.C.? Well, if you bought this image, you've been royally snuckered. The Bush family homestead in Crawford is nothing more than an elaborate set. The house, built in 2000, was designed to be ready for Bush to step into - like a set awaiting an actor - during the 2000 presidential election. Not only was the "ranch" created in 2000 - so, essentially, was the "town" of Crawford! Before then only about 400 people lived in the area. The Crawford Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture were formed shortly after the ranch was finished.

The 1,600 acres on which the "ranch" sits was purchased in 1999 for an undisclosed price, but it was a helluva lot less than the current real estate agents' appraisal of $1.2 million. Yep, worth $1.2 million, but G.W. has a sweet deal at the tax appraiser's office, where the property is valued at about $988,000. Oh, and that "homey ole ranch house?" It's actually a 10,000-square-foot single level mansion/compound that won't even be 2 years old until this November! The compound features a swimming pool for daughters Jenna and Barbara, who apparently loudly demanded it - the Bushes call it the girls' "Whining pool." Btw - we hear Bush got a sweet deal on the house construction, (the cost, of course remains undisclosed): the builders came from a religious community in El Mott, Texas. The original completion date of the house was November 7 - election day 2000. In other words, the curtain went up on the set on schedule for "show time." The very timing of this event indicates that Bush was absolutely confident that the election would be successfully engineered in his favor.

The whole idea behind the ranch set, of course, was so that the public could be treated to footage of Bush seeking a quiet "retreat" at the family ranch. Americans would thus assume that the ranch was a rooted family homestead or compound like the one Kennedy's had in Martha's Vineyard or FDR had at Campobello. But when Bush retreated into his "homestead" in November, 2000, he was merely walking onto a prepared set upon which the paint had barely dried, let alone even the barest of roots put down! When we see photos of Bush bombing around the ranch in his leather jacket in his "ole pickup," supposedly knowing every tree and bush - it's all pure fantasy! If Bush knows every tree and bush after actually spending, all told, a total of about 2 months on the ranch (if you put the odd days end to end) since it was bought, then I''d like to know when he found time to hold all those endless Crawford press conferences! Seems to me he'd be way too busy introducing himself to trees and bushes.

Until Bush and handlers decided that a rural ranch would be a slick bit of PR for the presidential campaign, Bush had no interest in a "home on the range." Instead, his preferred weekend retreat was to the Rainbo Club, an exclusive lakeside hunting club in Henderson County, about an hour south of Dallas, much closer to the comforts of Austin. When a Bush run for president began to look like a pretty good bet, the 1,600 acres were bought and the Bushes started making weekend trips to a 60-year-old ranch house that existed on the property - not of course, before refurbishing it! - so they could build the "lore" that would take in the American public, hook, line and sinker.

In an interesting side note - while Bush is anti-conservation in his presidential policies to please his corporate pals, in his OWN home, he has installed several conservation/energy saving features, including solar panels for heating water, rainwater collection for landscape irrigation, an air conditioning system that uses groundwater and a gray water recycling system. The obvious impression here is that Bush, being all PR show and no substance or real convictions, wants to cover all the bases. Block conservation when it is expedient, but have some conservation "stuff" to show off when that is expedient.

So, in short, we have a "president" who, ON THE SAME DAY - November 7, 2000 - stole an election and had the last nail driven into a phony ranch set. But with a completely snuckered press corps, we also have had a completely snuckered public. And a platoon of completely snuckered world leaders, chief among them Blair and Putin, who have been hosted at the "ole ranch" set and completely taken in. Alas, the Crawford ranch is a symbol of the utter corporate phoniness of this administration. The whole scenario reminds me of those type of sophisticated con artists (like the ones who recently convinced several investors they could turn sand into gold! ) who blow into town, rent an upscale office space just long enough to give them enough credibility to hoodwink investors. Then, once they have fleeced enough "marks," they disappear. What makes the Bush case much, much worse is that I doubt he will disappear.

Additional Notes on "Rancho Boguso" from Bonafide Texans

Apparently Rancho Boguso has done time not just as a small-time cattle ranch but was once a pig farm as well! And those horses you see in photos? Window dressing only - Bush can't ride!!!

Read with interest your article at Democrats.com. Being from Waco I know well what you say. Crawford first of all is closer to Waco than the Branch Davidian Compound but this is never said.

For you information Bush was just given a saddle as a gift that is now on tour around the state. This saddle is of NO use to him since he does't ride horses. Ask Vincinte Fox - who wanted him to go riding on Bush's trip to Mexico. [Wonder how Bush wormed his way out of THAT?]

Another fact is that he doesn't own any of the cattle on his "ranch". They are the cattle of the previous owner, who helps run the "Movie Set". He's a cowboy with more hat than cattle.

W. G. Lacy

Enjoyed Cheryl Seal's story about the Crawford "ranch." But she failed to mention that before Shrub bought it, it was a pig farm. And in Texas, it is too small to be considered a ranch anyway -- go look up how many 100 thousand acres LBJ had or how big the King Ranch is.

William Duttweiler