Bush Country: How Dubya Became a Great President While Driving Liberals Insane

New York Post columnist John Podhoretz has equal amounts of love for George W. Bush and scorn for Bush's prominent liberal critics. In this energetic defense of the president, he paints a picture of Bush as being much cagier and politically clever than some of the more well-known voices on the left give him credit for. As Podhoretz describes it, Bush's classic maneuver is to take up a position thought to be unpopular among Washington insiders, such as not one but two rounds of sizeable tax cuts. He then rallies public support behind the idea, thereby outflanking possible opposition, scoring political victories, and increasing his political capital. Bush Country presents chapters on what the author says are some of the most common "crazy liberal ideas" about the President and then sets out to disprove them. But by using the most incendiary descriptions possible ("Bush is a puppet," "Bush is a moron," and "Bush wants to bankrupt the government") to describe the ideas, Podhoretz makes the disproving that much easier. And one does get the sense that he's trying to eat his cake and have it too as he complains about liberals' hatred and viciousness even as he attacks them right back and calls them crazy. But Podhoretz does not necessarily march in lockstep with every Republican official. He has much scorn for the first President Bush and talks openly about his initial misgivings as "Dubya" rose to power and prominence. The book is at its best when describing the ways in which the son has made efforts to learn from the father's mistakes and distance himself from George H.W. Bush's legacy. Written with plenty of passion and humor, Bush Country will likely please Bush supporters who have watched the president take hits from the Al Franken, Michael Moore, and others on the left. --John Moe