NYT: Woodward Book Debut Not Quite as Planned (Release Today)

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/30/business/media/30leak.html?ref=us

Simon & Schuster had an intricate strategy all worked out for rolling out Bob Woodward’s new book, “State of Denial,” scheduled for publication on Monday.

Extensive excerpts would appear in The Washington Post, where Mr. Woodward works, on Sunday and Monday. The book would be featured Sunday night on “60 Minutes.” And excerpts would appear Monday in Newsweek, which is also owned by the Washington Post Company.

But that plan was disrupted Friday when The New York Times and The Daily News published articles with details of the book, which describes behind-the-scenes disputes within the Bush administration over the Iraq war.

Now, Simon & Schuster has moved up the release of the book to today, allowing bookstores, which have had it for days, to put it on their shelves earlier than the scheduled sale date.

He writes puff piece books on Bush when he is popular, and then writes books that are critical of him when is down in the polls.

Read post #3 an advance on the book..

Woodward has done a good thing. They've taken him into their
confidence and were forthcoming with outrageous information.

Thanks, Mr. Woodward..

He would write that the moon was made of old cheese if it would make money. I think there are probably much truth in this book, and i hope it hurts bush, but woodward doesn't much credibility with me. (he writes passages of people's thoughts for gosh sakes. freakin fiction writer. most of his books have been in loving awe of the bush boys (and girl).

:sarcasm:

<snip>

Whereas Mr. Woodward has tended in the past to stand apart from his narrative, rarely pausing to analyze or assess the copious material he has gathered, he is more of an active agent in this volume — perhaps in a kind of belated mea culpa for his earlier positive portrayals of the administration. In particular, he inserts himself into interviews with Mr. Rumsfeld — clearly annoyed, even appalled, by the Pentagon chief’s cavalier language and reluctance to assume responsibility for his department’s failures.

Mr. Woodward reports that when he told Mr. Rumsfeld that the number of insurgent attacks was going up, the defense secretary replied that they’re now “categorizing more things as attacks.” Mr. Woodward quotes Mr. Rumsfeld as saying, “A random round can be an attack and all the way up to killing 50 people someplace. So you’ve got a whole fruit bowl of different things — a banana and an apple and an orange.”

Mr. Woodward adds: “I was speechless. Even with the loosest and most careless use of language and analogy, I did not understand how the secretary of defense would compare insurgent attacks to a ‘fruit bowl,’ a metaphor that stripped them of all urgency and emotion. The official categories in the classified reports that Rumsfeld regularly received were the lethal I.E.D.’s, standoff attacks with mortars and close engagements such as ambushes.”

Earlier in the volume, in a section describing the former Iraq administrator Jay Garner’s reluctance to tell the president about the mistakes he saw the Pentagon making in Iraq, Mr. Woodward writes: “It was only one example of a visitor to the Oval Office not telling the president the whole story or the truth. Likewise, in these moments where Bush had someone from the field there in the chair beside him, he did not press, did not try to open the door himself and ask what the visitor had seen and thought. The whole atmosphere too often resembled a royal court, with Cheney and Rice in attendance, some upbeat stories, exaggerated good news and a good time had by all.” Were the war in Iraq not a real war that has resulted in more than 2,700 American military casualties and more than 56,000 Iraqi civilian deaths, the picture of the Bush administration that emerges from this book might resemble a farce. It’s like something out of “The Daily Show” or a “Saturday Night Live” sketch, with Freudian Bush family dramas and high-school-like rivalries between cabinet members who refuse to look at one another at meetings being played out on the world stage.

There’s the president, who once said, “I don’t have the foggiest idea about what I think about international, foreign policy,” deciding that he’s going to remake the Middle East and alter the course of American foreign policy. There’s his father, former President George Herbert Walker Bush (who went to war against the same country a decade ago), worrying about the wisdom of another war but reluctant to offer his opinions to his son because he believes in the principle of “let him be himself.” There’s the president’s national security adviser whining to him that the defense secretary won’t return her phone calls. And there’s the president and Karl Rove, his chief political adviser, trading fart jokes.


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/30/books/30book.html?pagewanted=print

the bushies reaction was captioned as the "Denial" denial..

perhaps we should be referring to bush as Tut - the King of De Nile?

Farting George Bush Doll - The Pull My Finger President
http://www.buzzflash.com/store/items/321

What we have is a Whole Rotten Fruit Bowl of Corrupt and Incompetent Republicon cronies looting the public till, lying to us about WMD, failing to take any action whatsoever on 9/11, and blaming everyone else for their own miserable failures...America deserves Much Better.

Rotten republicon crony apples

The NYT article on the book (Friday) said that a reporter simply bought it at a store before the release date. I assume the Daily News did the same thing. So much for elegant publicity strategies.

Then they are surprised and feel betrayed that he put up a mirror that reflects reality.

I just thought this would be the best place for this article.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5393964.stm

Veteran US journalist Bob Woodward has claimed that the true extent of insurgent attacks in Iraq has been hidden by the administration. He makes the claim in a book, State of Denial, due to be released on Monday.

In a preview interview he also revealed that former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has become a frequent adviser to President Bush.

State of Denial is a follow up to earlier volumes on the Bush White House which have contained a vivid detail of who said what to whom but have been largely uncritical of the President.

This book appears to be much more challenging, with Bob Woodward making at least one eye-catching and politically damaging claim that the true extent of the violence in Iraq is being hidden.

first Bush book that it was going to be critical of Bush? We all know how untrue that turned out to be when we read the puff piece.

I'm not buying.

Most americans don't find politics interesting enough to read books about political non-fiction. But Woodward is a big enough name so that he will have the 60 minutes air time and interviews on shows such as Larry King which appeal to a broader audience. We might see considerable damage, depending on how effective the opposite spin is from the White House. At the very least, Woodward has now given Rove yet another plate to keep spinning in the air. :P :7 B-) :) ;-) :+