Book Review of Bushworld written by Maureen Dowd.
While it may be considered a crime in conservative circles, I read The New York Times, and what’s worse I enjoy it, particularly on Wednesday and Sunday when flipping to the op-ed page, I see a column by Maureen Dowd. While I disagree with her often, her style is unparallel and her writing as enjoyable. She writes about politicians as if they are her private characters, each with their own vices and virtues. The interaction of the political event of the day merely allows for their personalities to show themselves. It’s a fun style that leads to an almost fictional style of factual events while still being able to maintain its place in the non-fiction area of a library. “Bushworld”, her first book but really a chosen collection of her columns, ends up being a winner although I was a bigger fan of her last book “Are Men Necessary?”. It deals with the presidency of George W. Bush in his first term, and his handling of 9/11 but particularly the Iraq War.
It’s a fair material since those were the two defining events of his presidency to this day, President Bush will go down in history as a foreign policy president as opposed to a domestic policy one. Her writing on the President will come across as condescending too many, and the effect was not lost of me. Her doing this is to prove the point that while some Presidents form and shape policy decisions on the people in their administration; others like President Bush give that power to people they trust, such as Vice President Cheney and Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The book suffers from its length at 523 pages it is to long and quickly feels dated; more editing would have helped the flow of the book more easily. Dowd likes to dwell into the psychological angst of written subject and it serves to her advantage, particularly with the interaction between President George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. The styles differences between the two administrations are remarkable and often Bush 41 reasons for not finishing Iraq have been proven time and time again, represented by his words back in the Gulf War and with Colin Powell work as Secretary of State during President George W. Bush’s first term. To many conservatives her harsh treatment of the responsibility Bush 43 administration for failing to stop 9/11 and her adoring of Richard Clarke will be a turn off and the Clintons get off at least in her chosen columns with nary a mention. However this book is about President Bush and the need to attack Clinton may be forthcoming as she has said before she would like to apply her technique to them in a book entitled “Hillaryland”. That’s really here nor there with Maureen Dowd you get impossible standards and your faults pointed out in a rotating harsh and humorous outlook. It’s a needed style that Dowd is more than happy to accommodate. * * * out of * * * *.
