The Hiller Instinct

Air Date: Wednesday, November 3, 1999

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Does George W. Bush Know What It Takes To Be President?

When we sent 7News political analyst Andy Hiller to New Hampshire to talk to Bush one-on-one, he came back with something different than we expected.

George W. Bush has money, momentum and charisma. If he has an Achilles heel, it's foreign policy, where his experience is limited. So that's what I wanted to talk about with him today -- to see if questions about world hot spots put him on a hot seat.

As our interview began, Bush dismissed the notion he may be weak on foreign policy:

Bush
"No, I've got a clear vision of where I want to lead America."

So I asked him to name the leaders of four world hot spots: Chechnya, Taiwan, India and Pakistan. The president of Chechnya is a former colonel in the Soviet army (Aslan Maskhadov).

Andy
"Can you name the president of Chechnya."

Bush
"No, can you?"

The leader of Taiwan's government is President Lee Teng-Hui.

Andy
"Can you name the president of Taiwan?"

Bush
"Yeah, Lee...Wait a minute...Is this 50 questions?"

Bush
"No, it's four questions of four leaders of four hot spots."

The top man in Pakistan is General Pervaiz Musharraf, who overthrew an elected government.

Bush
"The new Pakistani general -- just been elected -- he's not been elected... the guy took over office...it appears he's going to bring stability to the country and I think that's good news for the sub continent. "

Andy
"And you can name him? "

Bush
"General, I can name the general... "

Andy
"And it's..."

Bush
"General."

Finally, I asked Bush to identify the leader of India's government.

Andy
"And the Prime Minister of India?"

Bush
"The new prime minister of India is...uh....No."

Which led to this:

Bush
"Can you name the foreign minister of Mexico?"

Andy
"No sir, but I would say to that I'm not running for president."

Bush
I understand. But the point is, if what you're suggesting is...What I'm suggesting to you is that if you can't name the foreign minister of Mexico, therefore you're not capable of what you do, but the truth is you are...whether you can or not."

While reasonable people could disagree about what Bush's answers reveal, remember that no one knows everything, and no one's supposed to. So what a test like this may tell us most is how a candidate reacts when he's surprised and on camera. How did Bush do? It's your call.