I am not right up to speed on this one, and I don't even like the guy, but isn't part of George W. Bush's personal narrative that he was a bit of a booze-hound before Jesus H. Christ got him straightened out? It is certainly so that he was once arrested for DWI (Driving While Intoxicated). I remember that because there was a fuss about Bush family influence having the charge dropped from the records or something.
Now I believe it is so that he doesn't drink at all but he sure does seem to feature in a lot of photos of him praying. Well, whatever works!
Depending on how you wish to look at that you could certainly argue that there is indeed a former alcoholic in the Oval Office. Any narrative like this one about a politician should be taken with a grain of salt, of course. From the Bush side it could be that religion solved a big problem. From the anti-Bush side it could be that there was made out to be a big problem when there really wasn't. The truth could lie somewhere in between these two. You really cannot judge such things.
A lot of us who are very 'down' on 'problem drinkers' might well have a problem ourselves that we just don't want to think about. I used to read those boring articles about how many 'units' of alcohol one was allowed per week and be amused to note that was a bit less than what I often got through in a night, when I was by no means the champion toper! At least I wasn't all tanked up at 1 a.m. before an early start but in strict terms I was a 'binge drinker' for sure. So? Most of us living the life in West Africa were; if you weren't you had trouble fitting in.
For other reasons I was told that I could have one glass of white wine per day but that more than that would not be a good idea. I just laughed in my doctor's face at that one. I told him straight up that 'one glass of white wine per day' was PATHETIC! 'Doctor,' I said, 'you call that drinking?! Pah! Drinking is three or four pints of beer, at a minimum! Your offer is unacceptable. I QUIT!' That beat looking like a poofter!