What has Bush done to the image of Texas?

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What has Bush done to the image of Texas?
President has played to Texas stereotype, some say; whether that's a good thing or bad depends.
By Ken Herman
WASHINGTON BUREAU
Monday, May 14, 2007

WASHINGTON — The latest Texas era in Washington — the last for a while, some say — is grinding toward its last roundup, its final rodeo, the last stampede or any cliché you prefer about a state where even the clichés are bigger. The big-time Texans in Congress (think Tom DeLay, Dick Armey) are gone. And soon President Bush will be just another retired Texan with a ranch and a Dallas home.

So the time approaches to gauge the impact of the Connecticut-born Texas president (son of a Massachusetts-born Texas president) on the image of his beloved home state and its residents. Not good, says Southern Methodist University political scientist Cal Jillson. "He has fed into that sort of image of Texas as shooting from the hip and proceeding on the basis of your own sense rather than consulting more broadly and looking for common ground," Jillson said. "A lot of people think of that overconfidence, bordering on arrogance, ask-questions-later kind of view that has characterized George W. Bush, if not all Texans."...

Former Texas Rep. Martin Frost, a Democrat now working as a lobbyist, offered a blunt assessment of the Bush impact on future presidential races: "No Texans need apply." "That means there won't be a serious Texas candidate for the White House for some time," he said. "People have had enough of Texans." In Iowa, where Bush scored his first big win in the 2000 presidential campaign, University of Iowa political scientist Peverill Squire said there is a Texas-related "sense that President Bush follows his convictions without giving much thought to the consequences." "There is this notion of running off half-cocked," Squire added...

At the Capital Q, a Washington barbecue joint festooned with photos of Texas politicians and other Texana, proprietor Nick Fontana said he encounters occasional hostility about his native state. "A lot of people hate Texans," he said, "but I'm used to that. You just kind of deal with them. If Tom DeLay does something stupid or they are not happy with the war, they judge all Texans by that." Chris Patterson, president of Austin Grill, a chain of Texas-themed eateries in the Washington area, said whatever impact Texas has had on life in the capital has dried up. "What it did for business initially was give us a nice little push because there was a big hoopla about Texas and there was a good buzz about Texas at that time," he said, recalling a "fairly significant increase in sales" when Bush came to town. But now it's yesterday's news...

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/nation/05/14/14bushtexas.html