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 enlarge | Author: Jacob Weisberg
Publisher: Random House
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy New: $12.00
You Save: $14.00 (54%)
New (39) Used (15) from $10.94
Avg. Customer Rating:  54 reviews
Sales Rank: 31746
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
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Hardcover and dust jacket. Tight binding. Clean text--no highlighting writing or owner name. Book spine is straight, no cracks or creases. Cover is bright, clean, no edge/corner shelf wear. Hinge is perfect. Dust jacket is bright, clean, glossy, no edge/corner shelf wear, no tears. Not price clipped. Appears unread. Not ex-librry or remainder. Shipped in bubble wrap.
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| Customer Reviews:
 The U.S. -and the world- deserved this human tragedy? May 26, 2008
1 out of 6 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.
fair May 18, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
Weisberg's book is unlike a number of other books about W in that he delves deeper into the motivations behind Bush's behavior. Weisberg delves into Bush's relationship with his parents, siblings, and policy staff and provides his critique of what motivates 43. It is an interesting read and approaches Bush from a psychoanalytical perspective rather than a policy perspective.
The first chapter or two are rather slow but once you get through those the book reads well.
Like all the rest May 14, 2008
0 out of 19 found this review helpful
This book, like all others written by Bush haters, is simply a rehash of all the perceived wrongs by President Bush. These perceptions are taken soooo personally by those who hate him and cannot get over his winning eight years in the Oval Office. This writer is apparently able to read the President's mind and, of course, creates a pitiful portrait of George W. Bush in the process.
One thing I've never understood: For seven years we've listened to the naysayers blast us continuously with Bush's mistakes. Have any of these geniuses ever presented an alternative to handling the problems Bush has faced?
Blame America May 13, 2008
12 out of 32 found this review helpful
In 2004, American Democracy reached what could fairly be described as the nadir of it's existence. American voters were burdened with the awesome and impossible task of deciding between two Presidential candidates who had no business whatsoever being President. Not since Harding/Cox in 1920 had America had so little to look forward to for the next four years. John Kerry and GW Bush had little in common besides being mutually unfit for the nation's highest office. We Americans have noone but ourselves to blame. This is the America we have crafted out of infotainment, pundits, Jackass, video games, rap, American Idol, O.J. Simpson, Paris Hilton, plastic surgery and bling. Idiocracy in action.
As of the Fall of 2003, GW had spent nearly four years proving his incompetency, meanspiritedness, dishonesty, disinterest in Democracy and narcissism. In 2004 he garnered twelve million more votes than he had in the disputed 2000 election. 62 million people voted for "The War President." 62 million people inexplicably thumbed their noses at their own "freedoms." (Only in the Shrub White House can freedom be a pluralizable noun.) GW is a likable guy, no doubt about it, but I'd rather be his neighbor than his constituent.
Warren G. Harding may, at long last, be able to rest easy in his grave. Long considered the worst U.S. President ever, he may be passing the Presidential booby prize to "The Decider." Bush's faults are only surpassed by the shamelessness with which he displays them for all the world to see. At least Harding had the humilty to freely admit he should never have been elected and kept his hands off the controls unless he absolutely had to make a decision.
The book details Dubya's difficult relationship with his emotionally distant and unsupportive parents. Dad was a distant, intellectual, often absent, extremely high achiever and expert compromiser. Mom was a bitter, depressive, hypercritical taskmaster. Dubya has reacted to this by carefully considering what his parents would do and deliberately doing the opposite at nearly every decision or by making the same decisions (Andover, Yale, military service, politics) with plainly reactionary selfish and narcisstic motives. One could argue his entire Presidency has been one long "up yours" directed at his parents. Almost as if he has been a terrible President on purpose so as to show the world what horrible parents GHWB and Barbara were. His hostile reaction to his parents' shoddy parenting has been exacerbated by undiagnosed and, thus, untreated behavioral and learning disorders (ADD and some form of dyslexia) that were, apparently, noticeable and commented on as early as GW's elementary school years. He fortifies this with a confusingly aggressive anti-intellectualism. We've had Presidents who were not intellectuals before but we've never had a President who has so openly mocked intellectual and cultural curiosity. GW is the first President who wants people to think he is stupider and more ignorant than he really is. GW has deliberately crafted himself as America's least presidential President.
Dubya has tried to compensate for his lack of parental nuturing by crafting one of the most insulating White Houses ever. He has filled his inner circle with surrogate family members who unhesitatingly support and protect him. All Presidents have their "yes men" and ego strokers but no President has had so many unquestioning and unthinking devoted followers to surround himself with and prevent himself from being sullied by the world outside the Oval Office. Fitness for their appointed cabinet positions has been a secondary consideration to blank-faced loyalty. Many of these inner circle (Karl Rove and Dick Cheney, in particular) have taken advantage of the President's self-imposed obliviousness and disinterest by seizing and using tremendous amounts of power unsuited to their roles. Dick Cheney is easily the most powerful Vice-President ever.
For all of his macho "mission accomplished" and "bring 'em on" swaggering, GW may be the most insecure and immature person to ever become President. Other Presidents have had difficult childhoods and unsupportive parents but they displayed character by overcoming and striving toward legitimate hard-won personal accomplishments. GW is simply content to stand on the shoulders of giants with his hands proudly on his hips with that infuriating & unearned smirk serving as a signpost to everything that is wrong with this great nation.
The Bush White House May 12, 2008
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
Jacob Weisberg must thank his lucky stars every day that George W. Bush became the forty-third president of the United States because first he was able to cash in with a series of junk books on "Bushisms" and is now playing armchair shrink with a real book in which he claims to have gotten into Bush's mind to the extent that he can explain every major decision made in the White House during the last eight years. Even better he claims to understand the motivation of pretty near every decision Bush has made since he was a boy. That would indeed be a remarkable achievement if it were to be believed.
Amateur psychoanalysis aside, The Bush Tragedy is an interesting biography of George W. Bush primarily because of the amount of time and research spent on the Walker side of Bush's family tree. While the Bush and Walker families had much in common, Weisberg points out that their differences are more important than their similarities, much as was the case when the Kennedy and Fitzgerald families merged. The Bush family, as headed by Prescott Bush, was a modest one that did not believe in flashing, or wasting, its wealth. Prescott Bush's ideals demanded that he treat others as equals and that his wealth be as hidden as possible while he and his family lived its relatively frugal lifestyle. Other than money, the Walkers seem to have had little in common with the Bush family. The Walker family, as headed by George Herbert Walker, was a flamboyant one never afraid to display its wealthy lifestyle to the rest of the world, a family that thrived on the acquisition of all of the toys, estates and hired help that fit the image it had of itself; an aggressive, impatient and class-conscious family.
George H.W. Bush, by all outward appearances and temperament, is very much a Bush as he demonstrated during his four years in office, a period during which he was usually cautious, open to counsel and not afraid to change his mind. George W. Bush, on the other hand, seems to have more the personality of a Walker than that of a Bush, traits that can be observed in the way he has run his own presidency: impatience, aggressiveness, personal certainty and the preference for action over time spent on careful analysis.
Weisberg covers all of the main players in the Bush administration and ably illustrates the ways that men like Cheney, Rumsfeld and other neoconservatives have been able to influence George W. Bush to attain their own goals. Others, such as Karl Rove, Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell, come across as weaker characters that either worked to stay on Bush's good side or found themselves actually conforming their own core beliefs to fit those of the President. Of all the main players, Powell seems to be the one to have been most isolated and taken into the inner circle only when he was needed for some specific task.
The Bush Tragedy has much to offer despite its overdependence on psychobabble and Shakespeare to explain the mind of George W. Bush. Weisberg's theories may be interesting, but they are only theories, and the real meat of his book is found in its biographical details and its look at the inner-workings of the Bush White House. There is much there that will be new to casual followers of political history and that makes the book a worthwhile one.
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