What do you think?
Rate this book
Bush Country: How Dubya Became a Great President—While Driving Liberals Insane
In this rousing, persuasive, and hugely entertaining book, John Podhoretz says that George W. Bush has earned a place in the pantheon of great American chief executives---and shows in one amazing detail after another how Bush's success has driven some of his critics into a pathological frenzy.
Podhoretz is the first to acknowledge that the odds were stacked against Dubya, the inexperienced Texas governor who took up residence in the White House lacking an electoral majority, dogged by widely publicized verbal mishaps, and widely viewed by the American elite as a lightweight.
But to the delight of his friends and the teeth-gnashing frustration of liberals, George W. Bush has proven himself an immensely effective president. Throughout his three years in the White House, as Podhoretz explains, Dubya has outsmarted, out-maneuvered, out-articulated, and outshone adversaries and critics. Steeled by the tragedy of September 11, the new president took a nation more obsessed with reality television than with the reality of international terrorism and girded it for the long struggle that lay ahead. He has presided over two major military campaigns to stunning success, initiated tax cuts whose dimensions have awed critics and fans alike, and brought his party into the twenty-first century. He has been resourceful, disciplined, and independent-minded---so much so that he was able to reject his own father's governing style as president to find his own voice and his own place in history.
Bush hasn't hoarded his political capital, but has used it in bold and unexpected ways. Instead of bowing to conventional wisdom and carving out a centrist position, he has remained true to his ideological roots. Instead of deferring to established Beltway thinking, he has done what he thinks is best for America and the world. As Bush has grown more presidential, the criticisms of him have grown more intense---and, in Podhoretz's view, crazier and crazier. In a series of short chapters, Podhoretz takes a rhetorical scalpel to eight of the wildest caricatures of Bush and leaves them in hilarious shreds.
In a season of broadsides being fired from both sides of the aisle, here is a book that distinguishes itself by the force of its arguments and the ringing clarity of its thought. Impassioned, insightful, and convincing, Bush Country is an analysis of a presidency gone right and a celebration of a 0man who has already earned his place in history.
Podhoretz is the first to acknowledge that the odds were stacked against Dubya, the inexperienced Texas governor who took up residence in the White House lacking an electoral majority, dogged by widely publicized verbal mishaps, and widely viewed by the American elite as a lightweight.
But to the delight of his friends and the teeth-gnashing frustration of liberals, George W. Bush has proven himself an immensely effective president. Throughout his three years in the White House, as Podhoretz explains, Dubya has outsmarted, out-maneuvered, out-articulated, and outshone adversaries and critics. Steeled by the tragedy of September 11, the new president took a nation more obsessed with reality television than with the reality of international terrorism and girded it for the long struggle that lay ahead. He has presided over two major military campaigns to stunning success, initiated tax cuts whose dimensions have awed critics and fans alike, and brought his party into the twenty-first century. He has been resourceful, disciplined, and independent-minded---so much so that he was able to reject his own father's governing style as president to find his own voice and his own place in history.
Bush hasn't hoarded his political capital, but has used it in bold and unexpected ways. Instead of bowing to conventional wisdom and carving out a centrist position, he has remained true to his ideological roots. Instead of deferring to established Beltway thinking, he has done what he thinks is best for America and the world. As Bush has grown more presidential, the criticisms of him have grown more intense---and, in Podhoretz's view, crazier and crazier. In a series of short chapters, Podhoretz takes a rhetorical scalpel to eight of the wildest caricatures of Bush and leaves them in hilarious shreds.
In a season of broadsides being fired from both sides of the aisle, here is a book that distinguishes itself by the force of its arguments and the ringing clarity of its thought. Impassioned, insightful, and convincing, Bush Country is an analysis of a presidency gone right and a celebration of a 0man who has already earned his place in history.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
1 person is currently reading
55 people want to read
About the author
John Podhoretz
18 books11 followersAmerican neoconservative columnist for the New York Post, the editor of Commentary magazine, the author of several books on politics, and a former presidential speechwriter.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 21, 2008
Reveals many insights about how the president thinks and how he goes about things. Make sense after I read them and thought about them in the light of recent history but if I'd read this in 2003 when it was written I'd have doubted some of the points.
In fact, many truths about the innate character of this man are almost the opposite of much of what I thought I knew . . and to put a cherry on the top author John Podheretz also tells me WHAT it is about Dubya that is driving Liberals crazy! I've noticed they are beginning to get a little loony but it's hard for me to see why. Now I've got a clue :)
PS Hint: George Bush respects but is in some ways the antithesis of his father. He is not stupid, not a cowboy, not a radical, but has great instincts and takes the nation's business very seriously
In fact, many truths about the innate character of this man are almost the opposite of much of what I thought I knew . . and to put a cherry on the top author John Podheretz also tells me WHAT it is about Dubya that is driving Liberals crazy! I've noticed they are beginning to get a little loony but it's hard for me to see why. Now I've got a clue :)
PS Hint: George Bush respects but is in some ways the antithesis of his father. He is not stupid, not a cowboy, not a radical, but has great instincts and takes the nation's business very seriously
June 14, 2017
Well written! This country owes George W. Bush a heartfelt thank you - for everything he did for our country!!
September 19, 2023
Hagiography.
A biography that praises its subject.
I've read a few, and have enjoyed some... This review will not be my most poetic or flowing review and I wasn't particularly pleased. This wasn't all that great.
This is a one star rating because of this: Page 159: The author lost all credibility and ANY respect I had for him when he blamed gay people for aids. This book gets a one star rating simply because of this ridiculous and worse-than-childish rant in these few pages about how horrible the lgbt are for daring to remain existing after allegedly causing aids. I wasn't going to go on, but after that, why not?! Back on page 86, Podhoretz first lost some of my respect when he referred to people attracted to the same gender as "gays." As I've said, it should be obvious why you shouldn't categorize the lgbt that way. It's not simply pluralization; but if that's okay. Then we could group all heterosexuals together and derisively call them the "straights."
I lived through the George W. Bush presidency in my post-cognitive years (I think that’s what what they’re called). He became President when I was twelve years old. I remember quite a bit of those years, including the backlash and the praise. My family was personally split down the middle eventually, politically. Although, on September 11th and the weeks that followed it, everyone stood together. None spoke against Bush, to my knowledge, until 2002. Personally, my opinions changed after I read his autobiography. I went back and forth as a teenager, between caring and not caring, and between supporting and being against him.
This book had other issues along with blaming gay people for aids.
Already on page 8, we have a problem. It says that GWB's "malaprops" (as Bush called them) or "dysverbia" (as some called it) had been cured because of the demands and requirements of the presidency. Oh, Podhoretz is no psychic, that's for sure. This book was released in 2004 as an allegedly assisting work for the re-election campaign. Bush's peculiar tendency to add unnecessary syllables to multisyllabic words continued well into his second term. Podhoretz also tried selling Bush's "recovery" again on page 242.
On page 9, Podhoretz says that he once felt Bush was the least-prepared person to occupy the Oval Office in the modern era. I wonder what he thinks of Trump...
Page 19 has talks of three anti-GWB websites from 19 years ago. Unsurprisingly, "presidentmoron dot com," "Bushisamoron dot com," and "toostupidtobepresident dot com" are no longer reachable. Page 231 mentioned "misleader dot org." Today, it is just a sentence that looks German or Russian to me. I didn't bother translating it. Back on page 99 though, Podhoretz referenced a website (counterpunch dot org) that unlike the others still exists, interestingly enough. I guess it used to be some sort of political opinion blogging site (and we all know blogging fell out of popularity about 10 years ago). Now it has a bunch of political opinion podcasts on it and the mentioned Dave Lindorff seems to have left the company. There are plenty of David's, but no Lindorff.
Come page 22, Podhoretz confused me by responding to the author of "George W. Bushisms" commentary that alleged GWB was an idiot by starting to talk about books GWB had read during the 2000 campaign... I mean, some idiots can read, so I'm not sure how that's a valid argument in the supportive here. I mean one idiot claimed that all gay people were responsible for aids and wrote a book "Bush Country."
On page 47, the author made the mistake of referring to "A Charge to Keep" (GWB's 2000 presidential campaign book) as something GWB wrote. He didn't. It was ghost written by Mickey Herkowitz. Do they refer to campaign bios as autobios as a way to keep up the illusion that all politicians have the time to write their own campaign autobiographies? Or do they not know that we've known for years now that politicians don't always have time to write a book while/before they're campaigning?
Also on page 47, it talks of GWB's father (GHWB) letting people define him in the early '90s, and that GWB had to learn from it. The thing is though that once again, Podhoretz is clearly no psychic. Bush secluded himself in the last 2 1/2 years of his second term. He didn't see the point of talking out as much with all the backlash, and therefore did nothing much to define himself anymore.
On page 73, there was critical criticism. The author actually said that Bush was to blame for something. That's definitely an interesting turn in a hagiography. This actually happened a couple of times in the last two chapters as well. Curious. I'm not sure what should make sense in a book where the author announces that he thinks that all gay people are responsible for aids, though.
Page 94: I don't remember reading about the ABM treaty with the former Soviet Union in any other book about this Bush.
Page 116: The author is talking about the Bush tax cuts and how the liberals were condemning him instead of properly praising him for preventing an economic crisis. Ahem. Hmm. Dear 2004, as someone from the future (2019, of course), this author must have eaten his words in 2008; and oh, dear! On the same page, Podhoretz is talking about houses and homeowners being able to refinance their mortgages... and well, here's that annoying person from the future again! There was a certain housing crisis in 2008 as well... Then there's page 134 with Podhoretz talking about Bush's soaring approval/popularity rating... Oh, Podhoretz, you silly man, you! You're still not psychic, I'm afraid. Bush's approval rating isn't going to be what it was when you published this book... And oh, good Lord! Page 136, The Patriot Act. I'm not even gonna touch that one...
I'm not sure if the author was trying to make Bush sound good or bad... Podhoretz kept talking about Bush threatening the Democrats with "make a decision on the war yourself or find yourself voted out of office," or threatening to go to war without congressional approval was just "a way to twist arms." This book is interesting in some small way, but is making Bush look horrible (LoL). This is supposed to be a pro-Bush book... right?? I mean, I'm not so sure when the author blamed gay people for aids.
On page 140, there was talk of money for the first responders of 9/11. Years later, the issue is resolved for good, but the author's words on this page may have come back to haunt him.
This book didn't get better.
After this, I didn't really bother making too many notes, and I'm surprised I even finished it eoth all the crap on numerous pages including pg 232. I questioned if Podhoretz wrote this book to help the President or to convince voters to vote for Kerry. If it were a sneaky way to convince people to vote for Kerry (which I don’t think this was), it would be confusing given this author’s obvious hatred for President Clinton. Podhoretz is basically playing with the definition of English words at this point instead of making the President sound good. Wasting time and energy with the definition of English words, this pro-Bush and homophobic author was making a mockery of the first term instead of what he was trying to do; make it sound like Bush should be re-elected. No book you write sounds good when you blame gay people for aids.
On page 245, I shook my head at the naivety, simplicity, and boldness of a statement made before things kept getting worse in the two wars. Podhoretz shot himself in the foot in a way when he talked about Bush being able to wage two wars without too many civilian and military deaths. I struggled to finish this book after that. Page 249 talks of the possibility of a democrat President existing ONLY if people turn against GWB... and all I could think of was President Obama's landslide victory in 2008...
Phew. This book was one of the worst things I've ever read, and surprisingly not just because Podhoretz thinks every person with same gender attraction is responsible for aids.
As a final note, in reviews of other "Bush books," I've said that I do not worship George W. Bush. In this review, I amend that to say that "I do not worship George W. Bush, nor do I consider him the greatest thing since massive orgasms." Vulgar, perhaps, but the "sliced bread" version has been overused in my opinion, so I went for a gem; unlike my repetitive mentions that this author thinks that gay people are responsible for aids.
A biography that praises its subject.
I've read a few, and have enjoyed some... This review will not be my most poetic or flowing review and I wasn't particularly pleased. This wasn't all that great.
This is a one star rating because of this: Page 159: The author lost all credibility and ANY respect I had for him when he blamed gay people for aids. This book gets a one star rating simply because of this ridiculous and worse-than-childish rant in these few pages about how horrible the lgbt are for daring to remain existing after allegedly causing aids. I wasn't going to go on, but after that, why not?! Back on page 86, Podhoretz first lost some of my respect when he referred to people attracted to the same gender as "gays." As I've said, it should be obvious why you shouldn't categorize the lgbt that way. It's not simply pluralization; but if that's okay. Then we could group all heterosexuals together and derisively call them the "straights."
I lived through the George W. Bush presidency in my post-cognitive years (I think that’s what what they’re called). He became President when I was twelve years old. I remember quite a bit of those years, including the backlash and the praise. My family was personally split down the middle eventually, politically. Although, on September 11th and the weeks that followed it, everyone stood together. None spoke against Bush, to my knowledge, until 2002. Personally, my opinions changed after I read his autobiography. I went back and forth as a teenager, between caring and not caring, and between supporting and being against him.
This book had other issues along with blaming gay people for aids.
Already on page 8, we have a problem. It says that GWB's "malaprops" (as Bush called them) or "dysverbia" (as some called it) had been cured because of the demands and requirements of the presidency. Oh, Podhoretz is no psychic, that's for sure. This book was released in 2004 as an allegedly assisting work for the re-election campaign. Bush's peculiar tendency to add unnecessary syllables to multisyllabic words continued well into his second term. Podhoretz also tried selling Bush's "recovery" again on page 242.
On page 9, Podhoretz says that he once felt Bush was the least-prepared person to occupy the Oval Office in the modern era. I wonder what he thinks of Trump...
Page 19 has talks of three anti-GWB websites from 19 years ago. Unsurprisingly, "presidentmoron dot com," "Bushisamoron dot com," and "toostupidtobepresident dot com" are no longer reachable. Page 231 mentioned "misleader dot org." Today, it is just a sentence that looks German or Russian to me. I didn't bother translating it. Back on page 99 though, Podhoretz referenced a website (counterpunch dot org) that unlike the others still exists, interestingly enough. I guess it used to be some sort of political opinion blogging site (and we all know blogging fell out of popularity about 10 years ago). Now it has a bunch of political opinion podcasts on it and the mentioned Dave Lindorff seems to have left the company. There are plenty of David's, but no Lindorff.
Come page 22, Podhoretz confused me by responding to the author of "George W. Bushisms" commentary that alleged GWB was an idiot by starting to talk about books GWB had read during the 2000 campaign... I mean, some idiots can read, so I'm not sure how that's a valid argument in the supportive here. I mean one idiot claimed that all gay people were responsible for aids and wrote a book "Bush Country."
On page 47, the author made the mistake of referring to "A Charge to Keep" (GWB's 2000 presidential campaign book) as something GWB wrote. He didn't. It was ghost written by Mickey Herkowitz. Do they refer to campaign bios as autobios as a way to keep up the illusion that all politicians have the time to write their own campaign autobiographies? Or do they not know that we've known for years now that politicians don't always have time to write a book while/before they're campaigning?
Also on page 47, it talks of GWB's father (GHWB) letting people define him in the early '90s, and that GWB had to learn from it. The thing is though that once again, Podhoretz is clearly no psychic. Bush secluded himself in the last 2 1/2 years of his second term. He didn't see the point of talking out as much with all the backlash, and therefore did nothing much to define himself anymore.
On page 73, there was critical criticism. The author actually said that Bush was to blame for something. That's definitely an interesting turn in a hagiography. This actually happened a couple of times in the last two chapters as well. Curious. I'm not sure what should make sense in a book where the author announces that he thinks that all gay people are responsible for aids, though.
Page 94: I don't remember reading about the ABM treaty with the former Soviet Union in any other book about this Bush.
Page 116: The author is talking about the Bush tax cuts and how the liberals were condemning him instead of properly praising him for preventing an economic crisis. Ahem. Hmm. Dear 2004, as someone from the future (2019, of course), this author must have eaten his words in 2008; and oh, dear! On the same page, Podhoretz is talking about houses and homeowners being able to refinance their mortgages... and well, here's that annoying person from the future again! There was a certain housing crisis in 2008 as well... Then there's page 134 with Podhoretz talking about Bush's soaring approval/popularity rating... Oh, Podhoretz, you silly man, you! You're still not psychic, I'm afraid. Bush's approval rating isn't going to be what it was when you published this book... And oh, good Lord! Page 136, The Patriot Act. I'm not even gonna touch that one...
I'm not sure if the author was trying to make Bush sound good or bad... Podhoretz kept talking about Bush threatening the Democrats with "make a decision on the war yourself or find yourself voted out of office," or threatening to go to war without congressional approval was just "a way to twist arms." This book is interesting in some small way, but is making Bush look horrible (LoL). This is supposed to be a pro-Bush book... right?? I mean, I'm not so sure when the author blamed gay people for aids.
On page 140, there was talk of money for the first responders of 9/11. Years later, the issue is resolved for good, but the author's words on this page may have come back to haunt him.
This book didn't get better.
After this, I didn't really bother making too many notes, and I'm surprised I even finished it eoth all the crap on numerous pages including pg 232. I questioned if Podhoretz wrote this book to help the President or to convince voters to vote for Kerry. If it were a sneaky way to convince people to vote for Kerry (which I don’t think this was), it would be confusing given this author’s obvious hatred for President Clinton. Podhoretz is basically playing with the definition of English words at this point instead of making the President sound good. Wasting time and energy with the definition of English words, this pro-Bush and homophobic author was making a mockery of the first term instead of what he was trying to do; make it sound like Bush should be re-elected. No book you write sounds good when you blame gay people for aids.
On page 245, I shook my head at the naivety, simplicity, and boldness of a statement made before things kept getting worse in the two wars. Podhoretz shot himself in the foot in a way when he talked about Bush being able to wage two wars without too many civilian and military deaths. I struggled to finish this book after that. Page 249 talks of the possibility of a democrat President existing ONLY if people turn against GWB... and all I could think of was President Obama's landslide victory in 2008...
Phew. This book was one of the worst things I've ever read, and surprisingly not just because Podhoretz thinks every person with same gender attraction is responsible for aids.
As a final note, in reviews of other "Bush books," I've said that I do not worship George W. Bush. In this review, I amend that to say that "I do not worship George W. Bush, nor do I consider him the greatest thing since massive orgasms." Vulgar, perhaps, but the "sliced bread" version has been overused in my opinion, so I went for a gem; unlike my repetitive mentions that this author thinks that gay people are responsible for aids.
March 15, 2009
The only thing that influenced me to give it as many stars as I did is that the book is pro-Bush. It was written in 2003 so it's old political news now. It also brought up many things that anti-Bush (Podhoretz calls them liberals) people were saying about him which I didn't realize (or have forgotten?) were said which I didn't want to hear about back then and still don't want to hear about. And, despite the jacket saying that this was a "rousing, persuasive and hugely entertaining book", I did not find it to be so.
At least the book was read by the author instead of an actor which I tend to prefer.
At least the book was read by the author instead of an actor which I tend to prefer.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews