Journeys with George

Although JOURNEYS WITH GEORGE is an account of the campaign by Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush in 2000, politics is rarely addressed. Director Alexandra Pelosi, former producer of NBC News and descendant of a Democrat family, is more interested in the person than the politician Bush. He appears to be a charming matchmaker, ad rem and self-assured, with due self-mockery, who only drinks non-alcoholic beer. To Pelosi’s question at the end of the film what has changed in the past year, Bush replies: ‘I started off as a cowboy. Now I’m a statesman.’ With her personal approach and ironical comment, Pelosi’s style is reminiscent of Michael Moore’s. With her digital handcam, she visualises the hardly glamorous world of journalism behind the scenes, and the hate-love relationship between the press and the presidential candidate. Pelosi is read the riot act when she asks senator Bush if he sleeps well while the number of executed prisoners in Texas increases ever further. Colleagues avoid her when a poll, organised by her, among fellow-journalists in the touring party leaks out (most of them expect Democrat Al Gore to win the elections), afraid that Bush will no longer talk to them. At that point, it is precisely Bush who reveals himself as her only ‘friend’. The title of this documentary, JOURNEYS WITH GEORGE, was also suggested by the man who went on to become the 43rd president of the USA.