Spartan Profiles: James Moore
NOT IN BUSH’S LEAGUE
President George Bush now has another Moore from Flint to beware. Filmmaker Michael Moore has long been outspoken against Bush. And now, fellow Flintstone James C. Moore, ’74, who used to jog with Bush in Austin, TX, has co-authored a book—Bush’s Brain (John Wiley & Sons, 2003)—that paints a dark picture of Bush and senior advisor Karl Rove, whom Moore describes as a win-at-all-cost political genius. The book made the New York Times best-sellers list for several weeks.
“They are two heads on the same body,” says James, an award-winning news correspondent who has covered every presidential election since 1976 for CNN, NBC or CBS. “Rove brings the politics and strategies needed to make the Republican party dominant, while George brings charm, charisma, family and corporate connections. It might be the most tremendous political package in our history.”
Jim attended MSU during a tumultuous era, when he temporarily abandoned his passion for long distance running. “I got wrapped up in the war protest and running seemed self-indulgent,” he explains. “Ironically, after MSU I ran competitively for 10 years.”
An RA in Abbott Hall, he married classmate Mary Lou (Pagels), ’74, and they now reside in Austin with daughter Amanda, 16. Jim recalls two big influences at MSU, economics professor “Handsome” Al Mandelstamm and communications professor David Lewis. “Al taught one of the first televised courses and he really made learning fun,” recalls Jim. “He was energetic and theatrical.”
Jim applied those lessons in a broadcasting career that began in radio, and then moved on to television in Laredo, TX, after he successfully covered a hurricane that blew over South Padre Island. Eventually he gravitated from covering disasters to politics, a field that has also left him disenchanted. “I voted for Bush three times, twice for governor and once for president,” admits Jim, whose next book will be on the Iraq war. "I feel we’re headed in the wrong direction.”