Thursday, January 27, 2011

Review: Decision Points

Title: Decision Points by George W. Bush

Summary:  President George W. Bush describes the critical decisions of his presidency and personal life.  

Decision Points is the extraordinary memoir of America’s 43rd president. Shattering the conventions of political autobiography, George W. Bush offers a strikingly candid journey through the defining decisions of his life.

In gripping, never-before-heard detail, President Bush brings readers inside the Texas Governor’s Mansion on the night of the hotly contested 2000 election; aboard Air Force One on 9/11, in the hours after America’s most devastating attack since Pearl Harbor; at the head of the table in the Situation Room in the moments before launching the war in Iraq; and behind the Oval Office desk for his historic and controversial decisions on the financial crisis, Hurricane Katrina, Afghanistan, Iran, and other issues that have shaped the first decade of the 21st century.

President Bush writes honestly and directly about his flaws and mistakes, as well as his accomplishments reforming education, treating HIV/AIDS in Africa, and safeguarding the country amid chilling warnings of additional terrorist attacks. He also offers intimate new details on his decision to quit drinking, discovery of faith, and relationship with his family. 

My Review:  I freely admit that I come at this book as a bleeding heart liberal who never thought much of President George W. Bush and his capabilities. I borrowed this book from the library - because yeah, wasn't going to pay for it - as I was curious to read his take on certain situations. I went into it fully expecting to feel annoyed with things and biased against his politics. I didn't expect it to be so very boring. It took me a whole week to get through fifty pages before I finally started skimming to the parts that I was curious about.

This book is like President Bush when he went off script during press conferences. If it weren't so boring, it might rate as a train wreck. I will say that a few of the clips that were sensationalized were completely taken out of text - his mother didn't make him stare at her miscarried child so much as needed someone to drive her to the hospital - but the Kanye West thing? Very true. And so anger-making. He was president when 9/11 happened (no, I don't think he was responsible, but it still happened). He was president during two wars and whether he believed in them or not, men and women lost their lives during these wars. And the worst moment of his presidency was when Kanye West called him a racist? 

There really was no new information or understanding provided. I'm a political nerd and was honestly curious about Bush's time in the west wing, but it was so boring.  I think the only way the reading experience could have been worse would have been for it to be narrated to me by George W. Bush.

Overall: 1 star 

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