Customer Reviews

The Right Man: The Surprise Presidency of George W. Bush, An Inside Account

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

My feelings are the opposite of the "Reader from Washington" who reviews Frum's book here. I in fact DID want the personal perspective of a White House staffer and that's what I got in this excellently written narrative. If anything, I would have traded some of Frum's political analysis (perceptive as it is) for still more anecdotes.

The account of the 9/11 experience of the White House staffers by itself makes the book a worthwhile read. Kaddish on a PalmPilot!

While "The Right Man" does offer a fair amount of insights into the Bush Administration (I liked the ground/passing game analogy to describe the relationship between Hughes and Rove), I must say I was a bit disappointed--even though it is still worth reading. This book has been hyped as an "insider's account" of the Bush Administration, but it reads more like an autobiography of David Frum's brief time in the White House. The Right Man is already a short book, but it would have been better had Frum left out some of his personal anecdotes and concentrated more on the inner-workings of the Administration. I agree with Frum's conclusion that Bush is the "right man" for president, but I fear Frum might not have been the right man to write this book (please forgive the pun).

This is the first major work by a true insider from the Bush White House and it paints a very detailed and vivid picture of the nature of Bush's approach to both the Presidency as well as how his White House staff operates.

Frum is a former Wall Street Journal writer and has written on conservative social and political issues. He worked in the White House as a speech writer, focused on economic matters initially and then refocused on international issues after September 11th. While he's philosophically aligned with Bush he nevertheless was somewhat uninformed about Bush both personally and politically when he first appeared on the national scene (weren't we all) and somewhat ambivalent about him when he went to work for the Bush Administration. That sense of ambivalence comes through subtly throughout the book and lends it, to my mind, an additional layer of credence.

The boom is very detailed and wide ranging. It covers policy, Bush's personal leadership style, his political philosophy, the usual White House intrigues--pretty standard stuff for this sort of effort.

Several tings set this book apart, however. One is the simple dearth of genuine, detailed insider White House reporting that has emerged on this administration to date. Frum deftly explains that this is a function of several factors--this White House's penchant for security, the unusually close knit operating structure in the White House as compared to, say, the Clinton era, but most especially the incredible loyalty George Bush naturally inspires. Frum gives this penchant for loyalty the full treatment and it's a fascinating phenomenon to behold in this day and age.

Another truly interesting facet is the ways in which the deep Christian fundamentalism of many bushies affects both the policy aspects of the administration but also--much more interestingly to my mind--the general day to day operations and culture of the White House. Frum also gives this the full treatment and it is, again, a fascinating look at this extraordinary aspect of the current administration.

Frum also gives us an insider's insight into the wiles and intrigues of Washington politics. This is best exemplified in the "Axis of Evil" phrase, which Frum essentially originated (though his actual phrasing was "Axis of Hatred" modified to evil by Bush himself) and the aftermath of Frum's getting "credit" for it.

The only negative I'd voice--and it's why this gets 4 rather than 5 stars--is that Frum inserts himself into the meat of the book a bit too much for my taste. This is neither billed as or written as a memoir as much as an insider takes on the WH--not on Frum. It's a minor quibble but nevertheless a bit less focus on Frum's personal situations would have been welcome once his qualifications, bonafides and so on were established. It's not so much that what he writes isn't interesting (he tales about being a foreign national (Frum's Canadian) working in the White House and the complications that this causes are often interesting and even entertaining, but nevertheless distracting from the main focus of the book.

In the end though it's what he learned about Bush and what he came to believe about his abilities and destiny that are key, and they form genuinely fresh and enlightening look at the man, who he really is, and what he really stands for. What he has to say won't in general shock anybody who's read the title of the book, it's nevertheless firm and thoughtful insight about a man whose destiny is so critical and about whom we really, truly know very little.

Highly recommended.

Here is the deal, if you have made your mind up before reading this book (or pretty much anything) then don't bother. Life is too short to waste your time like that. On the other hand, if you find yourself curious about what GW is like behind the scenes, if you want to separate hype from person, or if you are just interested in what someone a LOT closer to the president than you are has to say about working with him - go for it. It isn't a particularly difficult read, in fact in many ways it seems to mirror the Bush Presidency - plain english, straightforward concepts. Like it or hate it is up to you. For my money I enjoyed it, laughed more than a couple of times and would recommend it to all save the 'radical left' crowd that seem to almost mindlessly hate the President (and often times, America itself).

Throughout this book I found the tone similar to David Gergen's "Eyewitness to Power." Whereas Gergen was trying to fit 4 presidents in one book, Mr. Frum deals only with our current president. That focus sets this book apart.

On the jacket, the book talks about Frum's "honest admiration" for George W. Bush. This might set alarm bells off for some potential readers. It shouldn't. It is easy to perceive Frum's surprise (and he does tell us outright) at feeling this admiration after his doubts during the 2000 campaign.

The book is insightful and intimate. The focus is personal, but you can directly compare this profile with those of Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton in Mr. Gergen's book. The observations are of a similar vein. More than that, it is an opportunity to get to know a president who, as Frum admits, is pretty insular. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

David Frum promises an insider's look at the White House, but he doesn't seem to have had the access (or perhaps the time) to deliver. His stories are often about his own star-struck reactions to Bush and the inner power circle. Of course, he was only speechwriter for a year, and the personality he seems to be most familiar with is Karen Hughes. That would make sense, since Hughes vetted all of Bush's speeches during that period. She would have been an almost impregnable wall between Frum and Bush.

Although he doesn't have many real stories to tell, Frum pads the book with personal, and partisan, observations. He decides that 9/11 elevated Bush's presidency by giving Bush a higher purpose, but he doesn't provide anecdotes to support his thesis that Bush is courageous, honest, or decent. The reader either accepts this view from the start (and most buyers of this book will probably already agree with it), or kicks himself for having paid good money for an insider's account that isn't.

It's a decent book. I think David Frum has a bit of an ego problem, though, because some of the things he writes about seem unlikely to have happened for someone who was hired as an economic speechwriter. If you're looking for a book to really learn about President Bush, there are definitely better ones out there.

This may well be the best book written about President George Bush until long after he leaves office -- provided his future biographers can match Frum's insight, intellect, innocence and industry.

With devastating candor, reinforced by hero worship, Frum details the intensity of the control freaks who run the Bush administration. He unveils a staff more dedicated to total loyalty to a leader than is ever seen on The Sopranos, showing an image of sterile tidiness that is shocked by Clinton staffers who anything as crude as pizza at midnight.

As an outsider, despite his wet puppy craving for affection, Frum offers a variety of devastating -- or magnificently uplifting -- insights into the character and goals of Bush. This is a book that will thrill every conservative and dismay anyone who thinks for himself.

Frum, like Bush, is not satisfied with being right unless he can prove others wrong. Thus, the 'you are with us or with the terrorists' fanaticism; control freaks never tolerate an independent thought. It is hardly surprising that so few outside the US share this fanaticism; maybe it's because "them furriners" know that anyone who is as war with others is not at peace with themself.

Let's face it: Bush has the world's toughest job. Anything he does affects the world. Nothing that 98 percent of the world's leaders do has more than a ripple impact on events; for example, a unilateral decision by Canada to launch a war on terror would heard merely as a superb example of Canadian humour instead of courageous resolve.

Frum is a superb writer, analyst and story teller, skilled at using what he says is a Bush technique. He says Bush wins loyalty by sharing little personal secrets with those in a personal conversation, "thrusting a gift upon us, the most precious gift a person can offer: a little piece of himself. By revealing himself to us, he bound us to him." This book is filled with such personal insights in an effort to generate loyalty for Bush. You won't find many "insider" books that are better than Frum.

So why does Bush so infuriate people? Well, if he's right, he invalidates generations of wishful dreams and empty thoughts that have guided American policy toward the Arabs for at least the past 50 years. If he's wrong, his bumbling bombast will give us generations of unrest, terror and war. Our future rests on the roll of Bush's iron dice.

Whether you like or fear Bush, there's plenty here to reinforce your views in a bright, candid and easy-to-read 284 pages. Conservatives will finish it and contentedly sigh, "Thank God." With a tremor in their voice, liberals will beg, "Please, God . . ."

Quite simply, Frum says, Bush intends to remake the Arab world. He sees Iraq, an ally of the Nazis in 1940, as merely the first and wobbliest domino. Bush is tired of oil patch tyrants. By the time US troops come home, he expects every Arab will know the meaning of "a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people."

No, that isn't a Lincoln quote. It's from Theodore Parker on May 29, 1850, at the NE Anti-Slavery Convention in Boston. Like Parker, Bush intends to set in motion a great chain of events such as those which ended slavery by 1865 in the US. Frum hopes a similar vision will topple tyranny in today's Arab world.

So, what is Bush like? Frum concludes, "He is impatient and quick to anger; sometimes glib, even dogmatic; often uncurious and as a result ill informed; more convention in his thinking than a leader probably should be. But outweighing the faults are his virtues: decency, honesty, rectitude, courage, and tenacity."

Anyone, on either side of Bush's crusade to reorder, reform and remap the Arab world will find this book to be an Aladdin's treasure of fascinating information, opinions and dreams. The timing for it is perfect.

As far as I can tell, there is only one problem with this book. Getting the Bush-haters to read it. Many will claim this a work of bias without ever opening the book. Others will dismiss it because of David Frum himself. From his years as an editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal and through the several books Frum has published, he has established himself a conservative. This means most readers from the left side of the aisle will avoid this fine book like the plague. But if you think this is just another conservative writer singing praises of the President, you couldn't be more wrong.


Frum has long been known to have opposed the Bush presidency. When asked to join the President's staff as a speech writer, he was at first shocked, and later quite reluctant. Throughout the book, Frum call a spade a spade. When he disagrees with something the President said or did, he tells the reader.

The question of "Who is George W. Bush?" is clearly delineated throughout this book. We find the author shocked to discover a man of such virtue leading the nation from the Oval Office. We see the President, not as the bumbling idiot the media and the left have tried tenaciously to portray him as, but rather as the sly, ever calculating fox that he is. We see the President as the `right man' for leading this nation at a time when solid and relentless perspicacity is most needed.

The reader sees first hand, the oil and water mixture of a working relationship between Karl Rove and Karen Hughes. The leftist myths that the President is only a puppet and that Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, et. al. are truly running the nation are removed without doubt.

Anyone who will read this book with an open mind will come away greatly enlightened. Admirers of George W. Bush will deepen that admiration. Dissenters still will not like the President, but they will find that, though they disagree with his politics, they cannot deny that he is a good, descent, intelligent man who is trying desperately to lead America in the right direction.

Give this book a chance. You won't regret it.

I was dazzled by "The Right Man." The writing is gripping, witty, and gives ultimately an honest, yet admiring, view of Bush that helps a reader understand this otherwise inscrutable man, and his otherwise inscrutable administration. Like Frum, I've often been puzzled by how the pre-Sept. 11 Bush transformed into the post-Sept. 11 Bush--and Frum explains it, brilliantly. His chapter on Sept.11 inside the White House is one of the most moving and dramatic accounts of that terrible day I've ever read. This book is going to be up there with the great memoirs of presidential histories--ever. Period.