Bush's Tears

Newsweek, April, 2002 by Martha Brant

For all his cowboy swagger, President Bush is a crier. "Nobody grieves harder than I do when we lose a life," he told reporters at his recent press conference. "It breaks my heart when I see a mom sitting on the front row of a speech and she's weeping, openly weeping for the loss of her son. It's, it's just--I'm not very good about concealing my emotions."

Bush's eyes will often well up. Sometimes with tears of pride, like when he talks about the life story of Al Gonzales, his White House counsel and an immigrant's son. The president is tremendously sentimental. Forget about putting his parents anywhere near him. At his inauguration he purposely kept them out of his line of sight so he could stay as dry-eyed as possible. He has learned not to brush the tears away. (Photographers would love to get ...