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The Bush Tragedy | 
 enlarge | Author: Jacob Weisberg
Publisher: Random House
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  53 reviews
Sales Rank: 5424
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 6.3 x 1.1
ISBN: 1400066786
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.931092
EAN: 9781400066780
ASIN: 1400066786
Publication Date: January 15, 2008
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Product Description
This is the book that cracks the code of the Bush presidency. Unstintingly yet compassionately, and with no political ax to grind, Slate editor in chief Jacob Weisberg methodically and objectively examines the family and circle of advisers who played crucial parts in George W. Bush’s historic downfall.
In this revealing and defining portrait, Weisberg uncovers the “black box” from the crash of the Bush presidency. Using in-depth research, revealing analysis, and keen psychological acuity, Weisberg explores the whole Bush story. Distilling all that has been previously written about Bush into a defining portrait, he illuminates the fateful choices and key decisions that led George W., and thereby the country, into its current predicament. Weisberg gives the tragedy a historical and literary frame, comparing Bush not just to previous American leaders, but also to Shakespeare’s Prince Hal, who rises from ne’er-do-well youth to become the warrior king Henry V.
Here is the bitter and fascinating truth of the early years of the Bush dynasty, with never-before-revealed information about the conflict between the two patriarchs on George W.’s father’s side of the family–the one an upright pillar of the community, the other a rowdy playboy–and how that schism would later shape and twist the younger George Bush; his father, a hero of war, business, and Republican politics whose accomplishments George W. would attempt to copy and whose absences he would resent; his mother, Barbara, who suffered from insecurity, depression, and deep dissatisfaction with her role as housewife; and his younger brother Jeb, seen by his parents as steadier, stronger, and the son most likely to succeed.
Weisberg also anatomizes the replacement family Bush surrounded himself with in Washington, a group he thought could help him correct the mistakes he felt had destroyed his father’s presidency: Karl Rove, who led Bush astray by pursuing his own historical ambitions and transforming the president into a deeply polarizing figure; Dick Cheney, whose obsessive quest to restore presidential power and protect the country after 9/11 caused Bush and America to lose the world’s respect; and, finally, Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice, who encouraged Bush’s foreign policy illusions and abetted his flight from reality.
Delving as no other biography has into Bush’s religious beliefs–which are presented as at once opportunistic and sincere–The Bush Tragedy is an essential work that is sure to become a standard reference for any future assessment. It is the most balanced and compelling account of a sitting president ever written.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 48 more reviews...
 The Bush Tragedy July 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The service to get it to me was great, faster than expected. The book is outstanding. What an insight to the man we didn't elect twice.
A Family Madness ** June 16, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Drawing on some distorted form of Freudian analysis and dabbling in Shakespeare, Weisberg is at some pains to show how George W. Bush's family heritage formed the President's personality. The son is continually referencing his father in comments and actions, while at the same time trying to distance himself from the 41st President . This isn't the first effort along these lines, nor will it surely be the last. In this well-written, but terribly narrow assessment, the author carefully traces how W.'s actions are a reflection of his reactions to his President father.
The account opens with a summary history of the Bush and Walker families. Their rise, successes and especially their personalities lay the groundwork for what follows. Weisberg carefully follows W.'s life in Texas and his attempts at an education in the East. Yale was not a happy time for the young man, and his reaction to the alien world of "The Eastern Establishment" set patterns he would follow throughout his career. As he haltingly moves toward becoming the Republican nominee [although little is given of that process], Bush begins collecting the men - and a woman - who will become his "inner circle". Karl Rove is a sycophant with a dream, manipulating Bush while being subjected to W's banter. Rove is later joined by Dick Cheney, two men with a dream of remaking the Presidency and US society. It's a compelling, if highly disturbing picture.
The Iraq invasion is, of course, the pivot point for Weisberg's analysis, calling the crusade against Saddam Hussein a total blunder. Yet Weisberg, in his depiction, makes a major gaffe of his own. After making serious effort to show how Bush makes decisions with little consideration, then sticks to the choice against any contending opinions, tells us that the President had not chosen to invade until almost the final moment. This is an astounding reversal of what Weisberg has been presenting throughout the book. The author accepts that the Bush regime "honestly" felt Hussein was a threat and the war decision justified on those grounds. Weisberg lightly passes over those such as Richard Clark or Christopher Meyer who testified Bush had decided on "regime change" long before. He ignores Colin Powell's admission that he was fed a lot of "BS" to present to the UN. Indeed, the contrived WMDs the Bush regime touted so vehemently were declared missing by Hans Blix, who receives not a drop of ink here.
Nothing is offered for why US voters should have returned this misfit to the Presidency. It will be the greatest tragedy in US history if Bush leaves the Presidency without facing charges, but this eventuality never enters Weisberg's account. In fact, no real assessment of the long-term impact of the regime's many Constitutional violations is given. We are given the portrait of a vulnerable man, with the most superficial talents holding sway over government procedures and policies unfit for a democracy. Does Weisberg think any one or a generation of successive Presidents is going to be able to set right what the Bush regime has wrought? Any new President will not be able to purge the Supreme Court of the witless hacks Bush has placed there. Worse, the deep penetration of appointments vetted more for their sympathy to "Christian" evangelical views than for any abilities is not easily uprooted and dispensed with. Weisberg may have well fulfilled the mandate he set himself, but as far as the author's concerned, that will all pass into history's assessment when Bush leaves office. The effect on society will endure. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
** with thanks to Thomas Keneally
A different approach, a fantastic read June 12, 2008
This is probably the most devastating critique I've read of the Bush president, and the reason it's so powerful is that the author isn't a hell-bent partisan. You get the sense that he truly would have preferred that Bush live up to all his best intentions, so when he fails (and fails spectacularly) Weisberg's critique is especially poignant. There are so many factors that lead to this tragic presidency -- the competition with his father, the unexamined substance abuse problems, Rove, Cheney, the Bush/Walker dichotomy -- and Weisberg gives them all fair treatment. I probably hate Bush less as a person now, but I despise his impact on this country all the more.
You Won't See the Same Shrub June 11, 2008
Molly Ivens warned us all about Dubya in the nineties, when he was wreaking havoc in Texas. So what has happened is no surprise. However, The Bush Tragedy makes me see him and his family entirely differently, as failed humans rather than as the characatures the world sees. The Senior Bush rises somewhat in stature as I see him now, and the son sinks even lower. But each newsclip, each Great Moment in Presidential Speeches, now seems three dimensional rather than like posterboard. Read this book. We have to get smarter.
 The U.S. -and the world- deserved this human tragedy? May 26, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
As a translator from Mexico, I'm keen on all kinds of issues, from medical and psychological to sociological to political, etc. Having an especial interest in U.S. history and how the Bush Dynasty ended up wreaking so much havoc in the U.S. citizenry fabric as well as in peoples formed by human beings -not "illegal aliens"; not "collateral damage"- but Human Beings (i.e., for Christians, brothers and sisters), I find the existence of this kind of book almost offensive. I know already what unfortunate circumstances led Mr. George W. Bush, himself a spoiled kid and human being, to spoil not only his presidency, but also billions of human lives out there that Mr. Jacob Weissman is not considering. It would have been better that this kind of psychoanalysis be made as a preventative measure. Is this candidate amenable not to react hysterically in the face of a new 9/11? Perhaps she would know in advance of such an event? Could she be so evil? Can this other candidate surround himself with wise counselors, does he himself, knowing right from wrong, have the mental capacity to do so? Then the U.S. democracy would stand a better opportunity to really work, but then, the U.S. nation has survived so many dubious presidents it didn't seem necessary to take special precautions in Mr. Bush Jr.'s case. Having read Robert Parry's non-pareil book: Secrecy and Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq, it is not difficult to know how exactly your great nation got where it stands now. I will posit the Bush tragedy commenced since Republicans decided there couldn't be more Watergates, politicized objective CIA analysis of the true weakness of the Soviet Union, that way Reagan -that criminal who almost finished some Central American nations and Chile too- and the Elder Bush would not have negotiated behind Carter's back to get elect. And, as another book that seems to exculpate Bush Jr.'s fatal mistakes, I will agree it was the delusions of neo-cons and of the (anti-)Christian Right that pushed Bush Jr's presidency through the mud, and many of the world's nations with it. But above all, are not a country's people entitled to the knowledge that this candidate, and that candidate, really know right from wrong? And if they do, isn't a great Nation like the U.S. entitled to recognize an electoral fraud and disavow it? I conclude it is good to know the reasons why the Bush tragedy occurred, it would be best to go back to basics, separate Church from State, really heed the most honest intentions of the U.S. Founding Fathers, and elect individuals who truly can perform the job of governing domestically (inside) and through wise diplomacy (outside). And no matter whether Bush Sr. spoiled his kid and his entourage pushed Bush Jr. into evil. It takes a wise electorate to choose a Man who'll serve the people who elects him, & won't merely act as the head of an administration that administers the interests of the already powerful and wealthy, to the chagrin of all the "globalized" and market-"freed" weaker nations involved.
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