Hell of a Ride: Backstage at the White House Follies 1989-1993 [Hardcover]

John Podhoretz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1993

The best of times at the White House becomes the worst, and a Reagan-Bush staffer and speechwriter lives to tell the hilarious tale of a presidency winding up for a collective breakdown. National ad/promo.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The title implies a rollicking tour of the Bush administration, a kind of Saturday Night Live takeoff. Instead, this book is a darkly humorous assesment of the evidently more-inept-than-we-even-thought White House bureaucracy. Former Reagan and Bush speechwriter and staffer Podhoretz depicts four years of a presidency not only without a governing ideology but without a clear "message" that could be passed off to the American voters as a genuine political conviction. According to Podhoretz, the lack of "the vision thing" on Bush's part was reflected in the perks-and-turf obsessed staff, the very people charged with carrying out policy. Political junkies of both the Left and the Right may enjoy this scathing account, but the average reader may back away from its brutally honest portrait of a modern presidency. For libraries with patrons who enjoy political commentary.
- Pamela R. Dauben speck, Warren-Trumbull Cty. P.L., Warren, Ohio
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Bush's 55-point drop in approval ratings between his war triumph and electoral defeat resulted in a dearth of mirth among his startled acolytes. Having licked his wounds, this ex-staffer supplies some of the hilarity occasioned by such a vertiginous fall. Podhoretz was only a nominal Bushie; like most true-blue Reaganite holdovers, he was exiled from the White House soon after the veep became the prez in 1989. Adopting the code-lingo of hallway scuttlebutt, such as referring to technocrats Sununu and Darman as the Gnostic Gnomes, Podhoretz assembles vibrant vignettes, most pertaining to events of campaign '92, of mid-level staffers hanging around the White House mess, in the OEOB, at the Republican convention, and in front of urinals. At such impromptu locales, staffers groused about what the higher-ups were doing with their ideas (disregarding them, normally) to save Bush from himself. This author applies a comedic verve that makes his polemic--straight from the conservative camp that always distrusted Bush--solidly entertaining for pols of all stripes. Gilbert Taylor

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 249 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First edition (November 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671796488
• ISBN-13: 978-0671796488
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,033,341 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hell of a Read, October 23, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hell of a Ride: Backstage at the White House Follies 1989-1993 (Hardcover)

This is such a great book, full of the rage that only comes from betrayal. The surprise is the humor; how many political books are laugh out loud funny? The last chapter is chilling, and the strongest piece ever written on why Bush was rejected, and why he deserved to be rejected

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heck of a Book, December 26, 2002

By 

John G. Hilliard (Toronto Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hell of a Ride: Backstage at the White House Follies 1989-1993 (Hardcover)

Finding books about the first Bush Presidency is not that easy so when I came upon this one I gave it a shot. I knew that the author is a conservative columnist so I was expecting a rather right leaning account, but I was wrong. Either Bush put the authors wife in jail, took away his kids or killed his dog because the level of dislike he has from all things Bush is really something. Reading this book was like watching a boxing match were one guy just keeps getting hit, the author kept the zingers coming from everything from domestic policy issues to haircuts.

The book is not a all encompassing overview of the Bush years. It is an interesting and well written account of an inside the administration view from that second or third tear seats. The author found smart and funny comments on all topics and never were there dull spots in the book. Overall the book is great, my only complaint was that it was not longer.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still one of the best books about Bush-41, October 7, 2002

By 

Andrew S. Rogers (Stamford, Connecticut) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hell of a Ride: Backstage at the White House Follies 1989-1993 (Hardcover)

"Hell of a Ride" may not, from the standpoint of history, be the equivalent of Henry Kissinger's memoirs. But it's still, for my money, one of the most useful, insightful, and entertaining looks at the political and psychological makeup of the Bush (41) White House.

Podhoretz is especially good on the tensions between the true-blue Reaganite holdovers and the "moderate," "pragmatic" Bushies -- tensions that not only tore at the Bush presidency but at the GOP as a whole. 41 himself emerges as a man who was, if anything, too nice a guy for the presidency. His insistence, post-election, that OEOB staffers take down a large sign declaring (prophetically?) "We'll be back!" so as not to display "poor sportsmanship" is a fascinating contrast, viewed a decade later, with the GAO's evidence of vandalism carried out by departing Clinton staffers.

Podhoretz writes with flair, energy, and a good eye for both politics and comedy. Go ahead and read Baker and Scowcroft for the nitty-gritty. Podhoretz has the atmosphere.