Bush twins ready to go public after graduations

CRAWFORD, Texas – Jenna and Barbara Bush celebrate their college graduations this weekend in private dinners with their famous parents, but the festivities mark more than academic achievement.

For the last four years, President Bush and first lady Laura Bush zealously have shielded their only children from the public spotlight.

“Our girls are not public figures,” Mrs. Bush once said. “They’re the children of a president.”

On Saturday Jenna Bush decided to skip the graduation ceremony for 150 English majors at the University of Texas, Austin. Her name was listed in the commencement program but her appearance was not required officially to graduate.

Barbara Bush will graduate Monday from Yale, her father’s alma mater.

The news media, which showed restraint when Chelsea Clinton came to Washington, D.C., as a 12-year-old presidential daughter, largely has kept its distance from the Bush daughters. Except for public scenes such as the 2001 run-in with the law for underage drinking, and an occasional sighting on the Internet or in a tabloid, the fraternal twins were free to enjoy their college years almost as normal students, albeit with Secret Service protection.

Now, the twins are going public.

With a splashy Vogue magazine spread due out in August and a yet-to-be-announced role in the re-election campaign, the same daughters who once reportedly spurned their father’s presidential hopes and their own potential celebrity are about to embrace their rightful place as representatives of one of America’s noted political clans.

The 22-year-olds – Jenna the blonde and Barbara the brunette – sat for a joint interview with Vogue Magazine a few weeks ago, and each posed in a variety of casual and dressy outfits in two undisclosed locations in New York City for the photo spread.

“They’re older now and graduating from college,” said Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue. “I think when they were younger, I understood Mrs. Bush being more protective. We saw this with Chelsea; she was so protected when the Clintons were in the White House, and now she is certainly more visible.”

Laura Bush, more popular than her husband in public opinion polls, has starred in an early television ad and traveled the country to address rallies. Political strategists say family members can soften the president’s wartime image among moderate and female swing voters.

But aides say there’s no political calculation in the daughters’ decision. The Vogue interview was simply something the twins wanted to do.

In her book, “The Perfect Wife,” Laura Bush biographer Ann Gerhart offered glimpses into the daughters’ distaste for their father’s profession and the impact it could have on their freedoms just as they were leaving home for the first time.

As the family debated Bush’s presidential aspirations, the daughters expressed vehement opposition to his candidacy, Gerhart writes. The White House would not confirm the report.

The frustrations boiled over after the alcohol incident in 2001, when Jenna was quoted in a police report lamenting that she could never do “anything that other students get to do.”

The Bush twins have career-related plans lined up for the fall.

Jenna is moving to New York City to share an apartment with friends and volunteer working with kids, according to the White House. Barbara, whose Yale degree is in humanities, is taking an internship in a Baylor University AIDS program, in which she will be working with children in the United States and abroad.

There was at least one sign that the president isn’t keen on his children straying too far afield.

Addressing graduates Friday at Louisiana State University, Bush told the parents in the room that he could relate to their mixed emotions. Then he offered some advice to the graduates that could well have been aimed at his own daughters: Listen to your mother.

“In the world’s eyes, you are now an independent adult,” the president said. “In your mother’s eyes, you probably still have some growing up to do. You may not always agree with her advice, but I think of it this way: The first voice you heard is always worth listening to.”