Harry Truman said, “If you want a friend in Washington, get a
dog.” It’s sound advice. As we’ve seen time and again, you
certainly can’t count on your wife or even your children to provide
support while you’re president. When times get tough in Washington,
man’s best friend just might be man’s only friend — it’s no
surprise that every president since Warren Harding has had a dog
while in office. Calvin Coolidge went so far as to declare that
anyone “who does not like dogs and want them about does not deserve
to be in the White House.”
But presidential dogs are more than companions. Just as regular
people often take on the qualities of their pets, a president’s
relationship with his dog, or indeed the dog’s own character, can
tell us something about the president himself. It’s true of
President Bush and his Scottish terrier, Barney, and it’s true of
presidents past.
Take Lyndon Johnson. The eccentric Texan had several beagles
while in office. He created an uproar when he was photographed
lifting one by its ears onto its hind legs. The dog didn’t mind —
apparently the Johnson beagles enjoyed this treatment — but the
message was sent: Lyndon Johnson: unpredictable and a little bit
crazy.
Or Richard Nixon. The Nixon family was given a cocker spaniel,
Checkers, by an Eisenhower/Nixon supporter from Texas. Facing
broader charges of corruption and special favors when he was added
to the Republican ticket in 1952, Nixon went on the air to declare
in his gruff warbling baritone that “the kids, like all kids, love
the dog and I just want to say this right now, that regardless of
what they say about it, we’re gonna keep it.” The wave of pro-dog
public sentiment swept aside any concerns that the candidate was a
bit shady and Ike kept him on the ticket.
Checkers died in 1964, before Nixon became president. But the
Nixon family acquired three new dogs: Vicky the Poodle; Pasha the
Terrier; and King Timahoe, a gorgeous, goofy Irish Setter, added as
props to try to make the candidate more palatable to the
public.
In 1997, just weeks before the Lewinsky scandal broke, Bill
Clinton acquired Buddy, the tellingly-named chocolate lab. Buddy
was no doubt the president’s best friend in the White House for the
remainder of his term. I can’t do a better job than Hillary Clinton
has already done at identifying the relationship between Buddy and
the former president: “He’s a hard dog to keep on the porch,” she
said — of her husband.
WHAT CAN WE LEARN about George W. Bush from Barney? Well, Barney
gets in trouble sometimes for his youthful indiscretions — just
last week, he was in trouble with PETA for playing with a small
fish the president caught while filming an episode of Fishing
with Roland Martin.
But the similarities run deeper. Barney’s page on WhiteHouse.gov reveals that Barney is actually a
somewhat complex character, perhaps more complex than any of the
current White House residents: he loves sports, and is fascinated
by the Olympics; he is a practical joker of sorts; he knows how to
be charming and convincing when he senses he’s in trouble; he knows
how to delegate his responsibilities and take control of a
situation; he loves flowers and digging; he is a talented actor and
producer; and he loves sweets.
The daily photos and short movies available on Barney’s web page
imply that Barney seems to have exactly the kind of bumbling
misadventures that one might well expect of George W. Bush’s dog.
We see him taking advantage of his run of the house to inspect
construction projects, play around in the pond, and nap on the
White House lawn. He scurries down the halls of the mansion and
zips through the metal detectors.
The short “BarneyCam” films are hilarious (with the libertarian
caveat that this was paid for with taxpayer money) in a way that is
probably lost on the films’ creators. BarneyCam II: Barney
Reloaded, my personal favorite, is funny if for no other
reason than the sheer joy that comes from watching Karl Rove
tangled up in Christmas lights talking to a dog. Or the amusement
of watching Ari Fleischer playing poker with Barney and raising the
stakes by two snausages.
Of course the film’s creators probably weren’t aware of my
theory that presidential dogs often share important character
traits with their owners, so they didn’t realize how funny it would
seem to have various high-ranking staffers talk to the terrier as
if he were a three year old.
Then again, Barney is credited as the film’s producer. Perhaps
what we have here is a case of the dog wagging back.
