Counterbias Book Review: The George W. Bush Presidency

John Hopkins University Press - October 2003
320 pages - Paperback

B O O K R E V I E W

THE GEORGE W. BUSH PRESIDENCY: An Early Assessment
Edited by Fred I. Greenstein

George W. Bush is a politician whose mere image riles up strong feelings, either positive or negative—but always strong. As is the case with most leaders, literature critical of a president’s job performance is more in vogue than those of praise. This was the case with Clinton and continues in a much more dramatic fashion with Bush (whether due to increased hostility from Democrats, or just a terrible job by Bush worth criticizing--you decide).

Anti-Bush books simply dominate the political textual landscape. And rare it is to find a Bush book that is relatively fair and balanced (truly fair and balanced, not the version negatively connoted by the News Corporation).

For every Bush Country: How Dubya Became a Great President While Driving Liberals Insane, there are ten of the Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush or Fraud: The Strategy Behind the Bush Lies and Why the Media Didn't Tell You variety. Polarization abounds, but George W. Bush Presidency: An Early Assessment tries to intellectualize and, at the same time, take a fair look at Bush’s first half term in office.

Although covering only the first two-and-a-half-years of the Bush presidency (“An Early Assessment”, as the title states), Fred. I Greenstein and the John Hopkins University Press have compiled what is likely the most objective, scholarly look at the Bush Presidency, at least at such an early juncture.

Ten essays, each written by a different individual (or duo, as is the case with two of the pieces), take a non-inflammatory look at how President Bush had performed during his administration’s first two-and-a-half years in office. It’s now been almost four at the time of this review (with the possibility of another four yet to come), but the ten critiques, some drenched in praise, are of interest to anyone bored of the overly-partisan, black-or-white presidential polemics stocking the shelves of your nearest bookstore’s political section.

The centrist Brookings Institution (including representatives Ivo H. Daadler and James M. Lindsay, who write a jam-packed piece on Bush’s “foreign policy revolution”) and neo-conservative American Enterprise Institute (John C. Fortier and Norman J. Ornstein produce a rather friendly piece on Bush, the “legislative strategist”) are among the institutions offering their bright minds.

The George W. Bush Presidency is a book heavy in policy and detail, complete with a few graphs, charts, and tables. The content is more suitable for policy buffs and political science majors rather than your casual voter, who will most likely be turned off by its academic, often sleep-inducing fair-mindedness.

The cover’s great shot of Bush looking on as a blurry-faced Powell watches in the immediate background might initially cause some to pick up the book—a testament to the ability of the mere sight of Bush to attract attention and propel a blast of emotion. Those picking up the book will quickly be putting it back down; an academic compilation of ‘boring’ essays by scholars may be attractive in some circles, but “an early assessment” after just over two years is of little value to most when the Bush drama appears to just be unfolding, into the November election and possibly beyond. The George W. Bush Presidency will be seen as but an afterthought, left behind, lonely and unread, on a presidential flight path growing increasingly turbulent.

Robert Furs