The Book on Bush: How George W. (MIS)Leads America

Of the spate of Bush-bashing books that have recently come out, this is clearly the best. Eric Alterman, who wrote the incisive What Liberal Media? The Truth about Bias and the News, and Mark Green, who has penned a number of other books on culture, economics, and politics, rise above the others through sheer thoroughness and a convincing literary style that transcends the merely journalistic.Alterman and Green begin with an introduction entitled, "The Power of Audacity," which I think sums up the Bush strategy only too well. When Bush was faced with the prospect of lukewarm support for his longing to invade Iraq, he simply came up with the Big Lie. Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction that he is planning to use against the United States, and he is in cahoots with Al Qaeda in planning further terrorist attacks. It has been said that if you're going to tell a lie you might as well tell a big one. Bush may even be aware of this quote from the author of Mein Kampf: "The great masses of people...will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one."The authors go on to show where George W. learned his audacity. From the Harken Energy insider trading that he got away with, to his irresponsible governorship of Texas, to his cozy relationship with Ken Lay at Enron (which he later denied), to his campaign prevarications about never using the US military for nation building or the No Child Left Behind rhetoric that he failed to support with adequate funding, etc., etc., we are treated to a kind of true crime thriller in which the bad guy is a sort of hail fellow well met (on the wagon of course), a good ole boy who steals from the poor and gives to the rich.Alterman and Green have chapters on Bush's "Deja Vu-doo Economics," highlighting his anti-environmental energy policies while he thumbs his nose at pollution control and the development of renewable energy sources. There is information on what the authors call Bush's "large portfolio of antiscience policies." (p. 147) Indeed, as I write this, scores of senators and congressmen are petitioning the president to allow increased stem cell research in an effort to fight Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and other scourges of humankind. But Bush continues to play a kind of reincarnation of the ignorant William Jennings Bryan who thought he had defeated "the infidels of evolution at the Scopes Trail of 1925." Also highlighted is the fact that, although the scientific evidence is overwhelming as glaciers melt around the world, Bush continues to deny that the case for global warming has been made and has called for more studies, effectively ignoring the problem.The authors however don't think that George W. is quite as dumb and self-deceptive as many others believe. They write "we think him dumb like a fox." Nonetheless they charge that "George W. Bush entered office with less understanding of American history and the world than probably any twentieth-century predecessor." Add that to Bus

The Book on Bush"The Book on Bush" is a tough read, in more ways than one. Style-wise, it isn't as entertaining as "What Liberal Media," the book that turned me on to Eric Alterman, but I don't think that this book was written in an effort to draw people to the arguments it contains (which, I believe, "W.L.M?" was); I figure that Alterman and Green wrote it more as a political science report, and with (probably, liberal) policy junkies as an intended audience. The other way in which it is hard to read is that it is depressing.That said, I think more people should read it. Particularly right-wing policy junkies.It seems to go through all of the Bush policies that I can remember and details, a, what Bush claimed for each initiative, b, what Bush did to get the initiative enacted, c, what each initiative actually caused to be, and, d, how the Administration actually supported each initiative once enacted.Like I said, pretty depressing (even for old-school conservatives, probably; the neo-cons never ran so wild when the old-school conservatives were in charge as they do now).My guess is that a lot of people who reflexively support Bush will gripe about this book. Another guess of mine is that a lot of people who support Bush don't actually follow the policies of his administration that closely, and will assume that this book is written by Bush haters that will make stuff up to defend an ideological position. I understand that; most of the (monolithic?) right's most successful writers do that so often that, to them, it seems fair to assume that the left does the same thing.As it happens, the (better) books (like this one) that come from the left are actually researched and (credibly) foot-noted. Which is to say, "Bush Lovers, read this at your own peril (and weep)."The main thing I got from this book is the confidence to ask people who still support Bush as President the question "Why?" Whichever policy stance they claim as a reason to still like the guy, I'll be able to say "but don't you know, he actually told the Congress 'x' and then did 'y?'"If you need thoughtful ammunition of this sort, buy this book; if you need a 'cheer me up, I'm depressed about where the country is currently going,' sort of book, you might skip this and re-read some Elmore Leonard (which won't help, either, but won't make your blues worse).

Alterman and Green have put all the reasons to vote President Bush out of office in one place. A lot of it you probably know, but even though I thought I kept up on politics, the authors continually surprised me with outrages that had flown below the radar of both the mainstream and alternative media.Honestly, it can be a little overwhelming and depressing to read in such great detail what the Bush administration has done to this country. Alterman and Green don't write as well as Molly Ivins (who does?) and they aren't funny like Al Franken. Nevertheless, the research that has gone into this is exhaustive. It really is THE book on Bush. Every voter ought to read it.

If you are only going to read one book about George W. Bush's didoes in the Oval Office, this concise, superbly documented volume is the one for you. If you've already kept up to date on this administration, from sources across the political spectrum from far-left to far-right, "The Book on Bush" is still well worth your attention.Dr. Alterman and Mr. Green are two of the most astute, informed, and readable observers of contemporary politics. All of their books rank high with me. But as this year winds down to the November elections, this book is a must for anyone--of any political persuasion--who votes with a concerned eye to the future of this nation.And for the knee-jerk one-star semi-literate "reviewers" who most likely haven't read the book, well, just because the truth hurts doesn't mean it's not true.

Only six months ago, there was a dearth of good books on George W. Bush's presidency. Then, beginning in late summer 2003 a spate of books started coming out, from Paul Krugman's THE GREAT UNRAVELING to Joe Conason's BIG LIES to Al Franken's LIES AND THE LYING LIARS and Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose's BUSHWHACKED and Scott Ritter's FRONTIER JUSTICE and David Corn's THE LIES OF GEORGE W. BUSH. Now we are seeing a second wave of books. It began with Ron Suskind's THE PRICE OF LOYALTY and Kevin Phillips's AMERICAN DYNASTY, and we will shortly be seeing Australian philosopher Peter Singer's THE PRESIDENT OF GOOD AND EVIL and Mark Crispin Miller's CRUEL AND UNUSUAL: BUSH/CHENEY'S NEW WORLD ORDER. Given this thick pack of books, is there room for yet one more? In other words, Do we really need Eric Alterman and Mark Green's THE BOOK ON BUSH: HOW GEORGE W. BUSH (MIS)LEADS AMERICA?The answer is yes and no. It is no in the sense that there is very little in this book that one who has read the bulk of the books above will not already have encountered. I have read all of the above-mentioned books (except for the two forthcoming titles), and I learned very little from this new book by Alterman and Green. However, I will add that this is probably the best single-volume summation of the presidential record of George W. Bush that I have encountered. The authors do a marvelous job of systematically organizing Bush's record of deception. What is especially effective is the historical approach they take to each area of deception. For instance, they may begin with his approach to an issue while governor of Texas, and then move on to statements he made during the 2000 campaign (which frequently clashed strongly with his actual policies upon assuming office), and finally to the history of his statements during the course of the three years of his presidency. The topics covered include his environmental policies; his economic policies (or lack therefore, since he really hasn't articulated any policies apart from blindly cutting taxes regardless of what the situation calls for); his handling of the rampant fraud in companies like Enron, World Com, and Andersen; his assault on civil liberties; his mania for privatization of healthcare and his passion for tort reform to limit pain and suffering jury awards (in my day job I work for one of the largest medical insurers of hospitals in the world, and I can't generate the tiniest bit of sympathy for his suggestions); his policies on race; his education policy; his attitudes towards science and his mania for replacing scientific experts with ideologues; his judicial appointments; his sympathy for NRA gun policies; his embracing of preemptive foreign policy; the fiasco in Iraq and the failure to address the problem of terrorism; the bullying nature of American foreign policy and the alienation of many nations formerly friendly with us; and his sense of messianism, his belief that he is an instrument of God's will.In