Reading Into Bush's Book List: "The reality of the intellectually insulated man endures."

WP: Reading Into Bush's Book List
By Richard Cohen
Tuesday, December 30, 2008; Page A15

In what without a doubt is the most astounding op-ed piece of the year, Karl Rove reveals that his friend and former boss, George W. Bush, has read probably hundreds of books over the course of his presidency....In his column, Rove says that Bush read 95 books in 2006 alone. In 2007, he read 51 books and as of last week, he had read 40 in 2008. The numbers are precise because Bush challenged Rove to a contest: who could read the most books. Rove always won, but Bush had the ready excuse that he was, as he put it, busy being "Leader of the Free World."...

As might be expected, most of Bush's books have been biographies and histories. Biographies are usually about great men who often did the unpopular thing and were later vindicated. As for histories, they are replete with cautionary tales. That might explain how the 1961 classic, Hugh Thomas's "The Spanish Civil War," made it onto this year's presidential reading list. Had Hitler (and Mussolini) been stopped in Spain, much misery would have been avoided. Substitute Iraq for Spain and you have, for the president, some reassuring bedtime reading....

It is awfully late in the day for Rove -- and, presumably, Bush -- to assert the president's intellectual bona fides. Now feeling the hot breath of history, they are dropping the good ol' boy persona and picking up the ol' bifocals one. But the books themselves reveal -- actually, confirm -- something about Bush that maybe Rove did not intend. They are not the reading of a widely read man, but instead the books of a man who seeks -- and sees -- vindication in every page. Bush has always been the captive of fixed ideas. His books just support that.

The list Rove provides is long, but it is narrow. It lacks whole shelves of books on how and why the Iraq war was a mistake, one that metastasized into a debacle. Absent is Rajiv Chandrasekaran's "Imperial Life in the Emerald City," Tom Ricks's "Fiasco," George Packer's "The Assassins' Gate" or, on a related topic, Jane Mayer's "The Dark Side" about "extraordinary rendition" and other riffs on the Constitution. Absent too is Barton Gellman's "Angler," about Dick Cheney, the waterboarder in chief.

Bush read David Halberstam's "The Coldest Winter," which is about the Korean War, but not on the list is Halberstam's "The Best and the Brightest," which is about the Vietnam War....

My hat is off to Bush for the sheer volume and, often, high quality of his reading. But his books reflect a man who is seeking to learn what he already knows. The caricature of Bush as unread died today -- or was it yesterday? But the reality of the intellectually insulated man endures.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/29/AR2008122901896.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

You could go through his head, from one side to the other, with a hammer drill and it wouldn't phase him. There's nothing that works inside of it. When he says he "leads from the gut" he means his colon.

that Boy George gave up his video game addiction to read books? Who's gonna believe that nose stretcher - besides the usual suspects of course, i.e. media whores and freepers?

It’s not about how many books Bush reads: it’s about Bush changing and abandoning his hatred of black people.

“WASHINGTON – Hurricane Katrina not only pulverized the Gulf Coast in 2005, it knocked the bully pulpit out from under President George W. Bush, according to two former advisers who spoke candidly about the political impact of the government’s poor handling of the natural disaster.”

“‘Katrina to me was the tipping point,’ said Matthew Dowd, Bush’s pollster and chief strategist for the 2004 presidential campaign. ‘The president broke his bond with the public. Once that bond was broken, he no longer had the capacity to talk to the American public. State of the Union addresses? It didn’t matter. Legislative initiatives? It didn’t matter. P.R.? It didn’t matter. Travel? It didn’t matter.’”

“Dan Bartlett, former White House communications director and later counselor to the president, said: ‘Politically, it was the final nail in the coffin.’”

(No author listed). (2008, December 29). Ex-aides say Bush never recovered from Katrina. http://news.yahoo.com/. Retrieved December 29, 2008, from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081230/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_advisers_speak_out

George W. Bush hates black people (indicated at http://andrewyu-jenwang.blogspot.com/2008/12/andrew-yu-jen-wang-responds-to-stokely.html).

Bush is a fool: he mishandled the Katrina situation.

It is one thing for Bush to hate black people in his heart and mind; however, Bush should have had the decency and civility not to express his hatred of black people in the way he handled the Katrina situation.

As suggested by Dan Bartlett, the bad consequences relating to Bush’s racial discrimination against black people are indeed severe.

The American public simply can’t trust Bush—as suggested by Matthew Dowd.

My sister—Messiah College’s first Rhodes Scholar—told me a while ago that Bush’s racial discrimination against black people demolished his reputation.

Bush is a disgrace. Bush knew or should have known just how destructive and notorious his racial discrimination against black people would have become. Yet, Bush just couldn’t help it: he hates black people so much and uncontrollably pursued his nature.

I include herein information from another post to consider the religious aspect of Bush’s racial discrimination.

I asked a fellow alumnus of Messiah College, Grantham, PA a question about George W. Bush’s raging racism. The correspondence is indicated below.

‘Fellow Alumnus:’

Please assume that George W. Bush did in fact commit numerous hate crimes against black people (indicated http://andrewyu-jenwang.blogspot.com/2008/12/what-did-you-think-of-that-naacp-anti.html>). Suppose, hypothetically, George W. Bush—the raging racist—said: “I, George W. Bush, committed hate crimes against black people—I just couldn’t help it. I, George W. Bush, can get away with the hate crimes I committed against black people, I hate black people so much, and I am not going to change myself for the black people whom I criminally victimized.”

Suppose George W. Bush never changes. Then, according to the Christian religion, is Bush inevitably on his way to burning in the lake of fire forever?

I hope you are doing well. Take it easy.

Andrew


Andrew:

According to the Christian religion, you and I, and every other person, is sufficiently sinful to be eternally separated from God. As I’ve told you before, I think the descriptions of hell in the Bible are probably not literal. The real experience of being separated from God, for a person created to live in relationship with God, is worse than we can imagine - worse that being burned alive. And the only way out, for you, me or anyone else, is to humbly accept God’s gift of salvation.

‘Fellow Alumnus’

Retrieved December 29, 2008, from http://andrewyu-jenwang.blogspot.com/2008/12/i-asked-fellow-alumnus-of-messiah.html

After all, Bush is not really a Christian (indicated at http://andrewyu-jenwang.blogspot.com/2008/12/george-w-bush-is-not-christian.html). A real Christian would not have racially discriminated against and disadvantaged black people so unyieldingly—the way Bush did.

Bush must be punished for his racial discrimination against black people.

Submitted by Andrew Yu-Jen Wang
B.S., Summa Cum Laude, 1996
Messiah College, Grantham, PA
Lower Merion High School, Ardmore, PA, 1993

“GEORGE W. BUSH IS THE WORST PRESIDENT IN U.S. HISTORY” BLOG OF ANDREW YU-JEN WANG

http://andrewyu-jenwang.blogspot.com/2008/12/ex-aides-say-bush-never-recovered-from.html

that bastard bush doesn't read and EVERYONE knows it

Dick and Jane ...

When I read,

"Had Hitler (and Mussolini) been stopped in Spain, much misery would have been avoided. Substitute Iraq for Spain and you have, for the president, some reassuring bedtime reading...."

I thought a more apt analogy puts Bush in the role of Hitler and Mussolini, and read the quagmire in Iraq as the place where his militarism was checked. Which is anything but a reassuring reading for *

we don't have the time

Does he think he's working a part time job?


*No- I don't believe he read this much