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The Presidency of George W. Bush
Free Press
September 2007
On Sale: September 4, 2007
480 pages
ISBN: 0743277287
EAN: 9780743277280
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Political
In this ambitious work of political narrative, Robert Draper
takes us inside the Bush White House and delivers an
intimate portrait of a tumultuous decade and a beleaguered
administration. Virtually every page of this book crackles
with scenes, anecdotes, and dialogue that will surprise even
longtime observers of George W. Bush. With unprecedented access to all the key figures of this
administration -- from six one-on-one sessions with the
president to Laura Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld,
Condoleezza Rice, Karl Rove, and perhaps 200 other players,
some well known, some not -- Draper has achieved what no
other journalist or contemporary historian has done thus
far: he has told the story of the Bush White House from the
inside, with a special emphasis on how the very personality
of this strong-willed president has affected the outcome of
events. Bush loyalists and the growing number of Bush detractors
will all find much to savor in this riveting political
page-turner. We begin with a revealing lunch at the White
House where a testy, hot dog-chomping president finally
unburdens himself to the inquisitive reporter, a fellow
Texan who well understands the manly argot that courses
through this administration. We revisit the primaries of election-year 2000, in which the
character of the candidate and indeed the future of the
Republican Party were forged in the scalding South Carolina
battle with Senator John McCain. We proceed forward to
witness intimately the confusion and the eloquence that
followed the September 11 attacks, then the feckless
attempts to provide electricity to a darkened Baghdad, the
high- and lowlights of the 2004 re-election bid, the
startling and fruitless attempt to "spend capital" by
overhauling the Social Security system, the inept response
to Katrina, the downward-spiraling and increasingly divisive
war in Iraq. Though the headlines may be familiar, the details, the
utterly inside account of how events transpired will come as
fresh reportage to even the most devoted followers of
mainstream media coverage. In this most press-wary of
administrations, Robert Draper has accomplished a small
miracle: He has knocked on all on the right doors, and thus
become the first author to tell a personality-driven history
of the Bush years. In so doing, he allows us to witness in
complete granularity the personal force of a president
determined to achieve big things, who remained an optimist
in the face of a sometimes harsh unpopularity, who
confronted the history of his time with what can surely be
described as dead certainty.
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