Former President George W. Bush was a controversial figure all throughout his eight years in office. With the bungled 2000 elections, some might argue the controversy began long before W stepped foot in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. But perhaps he says it best when he describes self pity as, “…a pathetic quality in a leader.”
Since the family’s departure from the White House, Bush has been penning Decision Points—his account of those eight turbulent years. Of course this has exposed him to another round of shellacking from the media. In fact, Buffalo News book reviewer Stephen Watson describes Decision Points as “…a high school student's report on the Swiss banking system.” What follows is Watson’s negative review, written in a mocking tone, and crowned by a disparaging caricature of Bush. In Watson’s defense, he says Decision Points lacks the soul and grit of other presidential memoirs. In my short years, I haven’t had a chance to read many other presidential memoirs, thus giving me little benchmark for comparison.
Decision Points is a thoughtfully crafted account of former President Bush’s life, starting with his childhood in Texas, his service in the U.S. Air Force, his collegiate and post-grad years at Yale and Harvard, and his eventual ascendancy to the highest seat in the land. He often shares the special familial bonds of his privileged clan, not least significant is the father-son bond of time spent in the Oval Office.
While Bush’s moments in front of the camera were often spent with him butchering the English language—who can forget “mis-underestimated,” “strat-e-gery,” or the “building buildings” in his 2006 September 11 memorial speech—Decision Points presents him as an educated, thoughtful, and articulate man. I realize he had a team behind him (just read the lengthy post-script acknowledgements) making sure his work was its polished best, but Bush is far from the buffon the media ruthlessly portray him as. His writing style is readable, concise, and without a lot of overly big words. For a man who’s very open about his Christian faith, some of his language is surprising at times. The chapters follow a logical structure: each of his major decision points gets a chapter to itself. The big topics dominate such as September 11, 2001, Afghanistan, Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, foreign aid, and the 2008 financial crisis. Because of this structure, each chapter often flashes forward only to wind the clock back at the start of the next.
Each chapter provides further insight regarding what went on at the Bush White House, and what prompted him to make the often-unpopular decisions he made. Agree with him or not, Bush defends every choice he made, and at least helps the reader see things his way a bit more. A common theme that ends up dominating the Bush decision machine is domestic terror and safety. September 11 came to define his presidency and most everything he did. One has to wonder, what might the Bush presidency and its outcome have been if 9/11 never occurred?
While defensive at times about his decision making, Bush isn’t afraid to admit mistakes. He outlines his pre-politics years when he dealt with personal heavy drinking and subsequent DUI. He admits there was infighting and instability in his presidential administration. He admits flawed intelligence on weapons of mass destruction was a heavy influencer on his Iraq decision, but is quick to add he’s not sorry Saddam Hussein was ousted. In fact, the picture he paints of a new Iraq almost makes readers think our sacrifice there has not been completely in vain…
Bush is perhaps hardest on himself when he describes his response to Hurricane Katrina, although he’s quick to shuffle due portion of the blame to former Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco. In the aftermath, Bush describes rapper Kanye West’s comment that, “President Bush doesn’t care about black people” as the low point in his presidency. It’s an accusation Bush quickly refutes with facts regarding his aid and advancement initiatives for the black community. I’m sure it’s not by accident that following the Katrina chapter is a chapter describing Bush’s $15 billion dollar program to combat AIDS in Africa.
So many of the faces, places, and players outlined in Decision Points—in fact the very things that came to define the last decade—are clarified through Bush’s memoir. Most of these issues still make headlines today, but as someone relatively detached from the news cycle (I wasn’t even old enough to vote for W first time around) early in his presidency, Decision Points serves to fill in a lot of background information.
Sometimes Bush is laugh-out-loud funny. Other times he shares tender insights. Still other times his writing takes a very serious note. But one thing is for certain: readers of this well-written memoir will get an interesting perspective on the contemporary issues that shaped the last decade in America. You may not come away liking our 43rd president any better, but you’ll at least catch a glimpse into his mind and why love of his country often defined the choices he made. If it's a high school report, then I'd give Decision Points a grade of "A."
GET IT
Decision Points is available from major booksellers and in eBook editions. Buffalo Library had multiple copies on order, but I was impatient (the wait list was long) and bought the digital edition.
A lengthy color photo spread adds some visual appeal to over 400 pages of Bush’s words, and as a bonus in the digital edition, these photos follow their respective places in the text. Hardcover readers will have to put up with a mid-text photo spread.
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