In the chapter called “Afghanistan,” Bush admits that the country slid into chaos on his watch, but doesn’t connect that to troops and presidential attention that were committed to the Iraq War. You see that as a thinker, Bush doesn’t make many left and right turns-he barrels straight ahead, until the topic is exhausted.

The chapters are organized around a singular, and often single-word, theme: “Afghanistan,” “Iraq,” “Leading,” “Surge.” In the chapter called “Personnel,” Bush explains nearly every hiring decision he made from Dick Cheney to Harriet Miers.

Where Bush Officials Are Now What does Decision Points tell us about Bush’s thinking?.

Clinton was like a novelist who aimed for greatness and merely wound up being verbose Bush is like a genre writer comfortably sailing along at his chosen altitude. In the midst of rattling off a trail of numbers, Alan Greenspan “slapped his left hand against his right fist, as if to jar more information loose.” That’s a very nice line.Ĭompared to Bill Clinton’s granite slab of a memoir, Bush’s feels light, affable, and readable. Hank Paulson enters the Oval Office talking a mile a minute and waving his hands like a symphony conductor. In Bush’s telling, loyal aide Steve Hadley is so stiffly professional that he sleeps with a tie snugly knotted. But it makes Bush a very entertaining sketch artist. This shorthand often made for disastrous decision-making-see his verdict on Vladimir Putin’s soul. Bush is famous for forming quick, lasting impressions about people. When the lieutenant governor of Texas threatens to “fuck” him in the legislature, Bush responds, “If you are going to fuck me, you better give me a kiss first.” You can tell he relished putting that one in. The latter comes as Bush, ever the yukster, can’t resist recounting the killer punch lines he has delivered through the years. This is surely the most colloquial of presidential memoirs, introducing such phrases as “uh-oh,” “the big 3-0,” “do-over,” “kick their ass,” “pissed me off,” and, in one instance, “fuck.” How would you describe Bush’s literary style?Ĭhris Michel, a former Bush speechwriter who helped write the book, told me once that Bush’s preferred mode was “elevated but direct.” In Decision Points, Bush mostly goes with direct.

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