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how to get in to HBS without a college degree: - have President Bush call you "Peanut"
- be quick with the zingers
- loyalty, loyalty, loyalty
- be nice to the hired help
Bush's personal aide moves on26-year-old heading off to HarvardBy Ken HermanCox News ServiceWASHINGTON - Add the president's "body man" to the list of close aides leaving the building. After more than four years as President Bush's personal aide, Austin, Texas, native Blake Gottesman will leave next month to head to Harvard Business School - one of Bush's alma maters - in the fall. Gottesman's official title is "special assistant to the president and personal aide." The more commonly used "body man" moniker derives from the fact that his job is to stick as closely as possible to the president. Since March 2002, he's spent about as much time with Bush as anybody on the staff. He delivers the presidential speeches to the presidential podium. He loads iPod One. He makes sure the president has the near-room-temperature drinking water he prefers. He dog-sits Barney. He carries the hand cleanser. He keeps track of the president's schedule. And he has traveled the world with Bush. Oh, the stories the 26-year-old aide can, but won't, tell. Gottesman is notoriously close-mouthed about what he does and what he's seen. No story about him is complete without the "Gottesman declined to be interviewed for this story" line. Gottesman declined to be interviewed for this story. He did confirm that he will leave his post by mid-June to head back to school in the fall. Fortunately, White House aides who have watched Gottesman do his job are willing to talk about what they've seen. They talk of an endlessly loyal, efficient and courteous young man, always well-groomed and handsomely haberdashered, who has earned the president's trust. "He is a friend and adviser to every employee of the White House, from career maintenance workers to cabinet secretaries," said Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin. "He is consistently kind and warm and generous with his time and provides extraordinarily good advice." But, Bush advisers note, hold off on the permanent installation of a halo above Gottesman's never-a-hair-out-of-place head. The young wise man also can be a wise guy. Hagin, once the body man to the elder Bush when he was vice president, couches it in the positive. Retaining the "ability to laugh" is a White House virtue, Hagin noted. "His timing is good," Hagin said. Example: Within earshot of the president after a major speech, Gottesman says, "I don't know, Hagin. I thought it was a pretty good speech." "He is the one person in the president's orbit who can towel-snap as fast and funny as the president," said longtime Bush adviser Mark McKinnon said. "And he's not afraid to throw a zinger back at the president." It's all very respectful, McKinnon added, noting that Gottesman's zingers always end with "sir." "Blake doesn't just serve the president, he entertains the president," said McKinnon. Gottesman's links to the Bushes go back to his days at St. Andrews Episcopal School in Austin when he dated Bush daughter Jenna. He signed on with the presidential campaign in 1999, shortly after completing his freshman year at Claremont McKenna College in California. Peanut, as Bush calls him for a reason nobody can immediately pinpoint, performs a variety of functions for Bush, all aimed at freeing the president from the little annoyances that can ruin a world leader's day. He carries the Purell for after handshaking sessions. He makes sure the president has his favored peanut-butter-and-jelly on days when lunch is sandwiched in around a busy schedule. He did the research to make sure Bush had appropriate iPod headphones for when he rides his bike. "He sees problems and issues before they become problems and issues," said Josh Deckard, a friend who now works in the White House Press Office. As a college dropout, Gottesman will be a rarity at Harvard Business School, where spokeswoman Kerry Parke, declining to discuss Gottesman's situation, said the institution "has admitted students in the past without an undergraduate degree." | 
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发表于 2006-6-13 01:41:00
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