I'm glad President Bush has published Decision Points—not so much because I think it will help rehabilitate his image or improve his place in history, though I think it will help on those counts. I'm glad because I believe readers will get a sense of the George W. Bush who I've known for 15 years—a man who is very different than the distorted public image many have come to accept as accurate.
Han fortsätter:
Contrary to conventional wisdom, President Bush is very smart, quietly reflective, often contrite, and deeply humble. He is also a strong leader who, while relying on the strong counsel of many around him, makes his own decisions.
Och vidare:
President Bush, in my view, wisely decided not to make his book a chronology of his administration. By writing about the most important decisions in his life, we get a view of those events that truly shaped his life and his presidency. And we come to gain a greater appreciation of just how complex and difficult the decisions a president must make truly are. As he says, the easy decisions don't get to the president's desk.
Han fortsätter med att förklara att dagens mediaformat gör det omöjligt för presidenter att behålla sin popularitet och jämför sedan Bush och Obama - och noterar en intressant skillnad mellan de två:
The book does highlight, however, a fundamental difference between George Bush and Barack Obama. Bush never complains. He never blames others. He takes full responsibility for his campaigns, his administration, his life. He accepts the cards he's dealt. That's the George Bush I know.
På detta ger han två exempel - ett från hans eget liv under primärvalet 2000 - samt skillnaden i jämförelse med hur han uppfattar John Kerry (demokraten som förlorade mot Bush i presidentvalet 2004):
When we were up to our knees in the snows of New Hampshire and got whipped by John McCain by 19 points, my advertising colleague Stuart Stevens started packing his bags. I asked what he was doing. "We're going to be fired," he said speaking from the experience of someone who had been in previous presidential campaigns when things went south. But Bush called us all into his room, looked us all in the eye, and said, "When we walk out of here and the defeat we've just been dealt, I want all your heads high. This is not your fault. It’s mine alone. I let you down, and I apologize." And then he went out and gave a speech that Reagan's speechwriter Peggy Noonan told me looked like a victory speech if you turned the sound off. In contrast, when I saw John Kerry after the 2004 campaign (ironically in Paris), he said to me, "You guys did a really good job, and my team really $%&#$ it up." Amazing he would think that. Incredible he would say it. Astonishing he would say it to me.
Han beskriver lite senare återigen Bushs personlighet:
Bush is very loyal. Perhaps loyal to a fault—in the sense that he kept around people like Donald Rumsfeld around longer than he should have.
...But if loyalty is a flaw, I'm glad he's got it. I’ve been the recipient of his loyalty many times over the years. He kept me around both as an employee and a friend when others would have cut me loose, and kept me on as ad director for the 2004 campaign despite an effort to replace me. His was the first call I got when my wife was diagnosed with cancer. And during an FBI criminal investigation into an employee who worked in my office, he never wavered in his support for me.
I didn't always agree with President Bush's decisions or policies, but I never doubted his heart. And I've never regretted for a moment the day I crossed the political bridge to help reelect him as governor of Texas in 1998. It was an honor then. It's an honor today.
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Se även tidigare inlägg:
Bush intervjuas av Rush Limbaugh 20101109
Terry Holt om Bushs bok 20101109
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