Former President George W. Bush is back in the spotlight as he hits the media circuit to promote his new memoir Decision Points in conjunction with its release this week.
"I have written a book," said the Republican leader at a trade conference in Chicago, Ill. last month. He joked, "This will come as quite a shock to some. They didn't think I could read, much less write."
Details from Decision Points began to leak in the weeks leading up to its November 9 scheduled release. From reflections on some of the most intense controversies his administration faced, to concerns over former Vice President Dick Cheney coming off to the public as "Darth Vadar," new insights continue to emerge as Bush conducts interviews about the book.
"I have zero desire, just so you know, to be in the limelight," explained the former White House leader last month. "I'm going to emerge then submerge."
In a one-on-one interview with NBC News host Matt Lauer this week, Bush spoke about his legacy.
"I hope I'm judged a success. But I'm gonna be dead, Matt, when they finally figure it out," he explained. "And I'm comfortable knowing that I gave it my all, that I love America and I know it was an honor to serve."
While the time Bush spends in the public eye may be short-lived, there's no shortage in details from Decision Points to keep buzz alive about the former president.
Here's a rundown on some of the most intriguing revelations:
George W. Bush & <em>Decision Points</em> Revelations
Most Embarrassing Moment From Drinking Days(01 of12)
HuffPost's Sam Stein reports:The second batch of former President George W. Bush's interview with NBC's Matt Lauer was released on Friday. And unlike the first, it is heavily focused on the personal turmoil that plagued Bush prior to his political career -- chief among them his excessive drinking.Buried in the interview is a colorful anecdote that personifies to what extent alcohol had come to dominate his life.
MATT LAUER: Tell me the story about the dinner party where you--GEORGE W. BUSH: Okay. So here's one of the worst.MATT LAUER: That's what we want, we want the worst.GEORGE W. BUSH: Well, you found it.MATT LAUER: Yeah.GEORGE W. BUSH: So I'm drunk at the dinner table at Mother and Dad's house in Maine. And my brothers and sister are there, Laura's there. And I'm sitting next to a beautiful woman, friend of Mother and Dad's. And I said to her out loud, "What is sex like after 50?"MATT LAUER: Silence.GEORGE W. BUSH: And I mean total silence. And not only silence, but like serious daggers.MATT LAUER: From your mom.GEORGE W. BUSH: Yeah. And my wife. And then I end the anecdote by saying, "I call her to apologize, of course." The after dinner remorses.MATT LAUER: But the point of the story is to say alcohol had a control of you, you didn't have control over alcohol.GEORGE W. BUSH: That's right. And I was a wiseass, and I would do stupid things, and alcohol had control over me. The interesting thing-- I end the anecdote with her writing me a letter on my 50th birthday, when I was governor of Texas, "Dear Governor: Well, what's the answer?"Click here to read more.
Katrina Air Force One Photo Was A 'Huge Mistake'(02 of12)
HuffPost's Nick Wing reports:More than five years after the fact, former President George W. Bush is admitting that having a photograph taken of him peering out the window of Air Force One at the Katrina-caused wreckage of New Orleans was a "huge mistake."During an interview with NBC's Matt Lauer set to air next week, Bush had no qualms accepting that, with 20/20 hindsight, he would have approached the situation much differently to avoid appearing "detached and uncaring.""It's always my fault. I mean, I was the one who should have said: 'A) Don't take my picture, B) Let's land in Baton Rouge, La., C) Let's don't even come close to the area.' The next place to be seen is in Washington at a command center. I mean it was my fault," Bush said.Bush's handling of the natural disaster was widely regarded as one of the low points of his political career, which was projected by a downward slide of his approval ratings in the following months.The former president went on to show remorse for not getting more directly involved with the ground situation in the aftermath of the hurricane's damage to the gulf."In retrospect, however, I should have touched down in Baton Rouge, met with the governor and walked out and said, 'I hear you. We understand. And we're going to help the state and help the local governments with as much resources as needed,'" Bush said. "And then got back on a flight up to Washington. I did not do that. And paid a price for it."Bush also addressed Katrina backlash in the context of his public image by saying that Kanye West's "George Bush doesn't care about black people" comment was one of the most painful moments of his presidency.
Directly Authorized Use Of Waterboarding, Still Insists Not 'Torture'(03 of12)
HuffPost's Nick Wing reports:"Damn right."That's what former president George W. Bush told CIA officials when they came to ask him for permission to waterboard alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed, according to a Washington Postreport on the 43rd president's forthcoming book, "Decision Points."Mohammed supposedly had knowledge of brewing terrorist plots against the United States, and Bush had little reservation about using the practice of simulated drowning on the detainee to extract them."I'd do it again to save lives," Bush, who refused to call the interrogation technique "torture" during his presidency, said at a forum earlier this year. He repeats this willingness to use the procedure and maintains that it isn't torture in his book, according to the Post.President Obama and the current Justice Department have tightened their view on waterboarding, characterizing it as an act of torture that is prohibited by international stricture, and, while the Post reports that there may someday be legal repercussions for those who directly authorized torture, the Obama administration has shown little interest in pursuing action against Bush and others, such as Dick Cheney, who have openly supported and admitted using the interrogation tactic.
Considering Dropping Cheney Over 'Darth Vader' Image(04 of12)
HuffPost's Jack Mirkinson reports:The New York Timesreports that former President George W. Bush reveals in his upcoming memoirs that he considered dropping Vice President Dick Cheney from the presidential ticket for the 2004 elections.The paper obtained an early copy of Bush's book "Decision Points," which is not slated to be released until Nov. 9. Times reporter Peter Baker writes that Bush claims to have mulled switching Cheney with then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. Even more surprising, the former president says that the idea was actually Cheney's:
"While Dick helped with important parts of our base, he had become a lightning rod for criticism from the media and the left," Mr. Bush writes. "He was seen as dark and heartless - the Darth Vader of the administration." The president resented the caricature that Mr. Cheney really controlled the White House. "Accepting Dick's offer would be one way to demonstrate that I was in charge," he writes.But in the end, Mr. Bush writes, "the more I thought about it, the more strongly I felt Dick should stay. I hadn't picked him to be a political asset; I had chosen him to help me do the job. That was exactly what he had done." Mr. Bush wrote that he trusted Mr. Cheney, valued his steadiness and considered him a good friend. So, "at one of our lunches a few weeks later, I asked Dick to stay and he agreed."Click here to read more.
A 'Complex Relationship' With John McCain(05 of12)
Politico reports that in the memoir from the former president, Bush discusses the evolution of a "complex relationship" between himself and Arizona Sen. John McCain:
The 43rd president suggests his opponent for the Republican nomination in 2000 blew an opportunity to capitalize politically on the financial crisis eight years later. Without saying it explicitly, Bush portrays then-Sen. Barack Obama as more presidential than McCain in his handling of the financial crisis.Bush also reportedly writes about disagreeing with McCain's decision to distance himself from the White House during the 2008 presidential campaign. “I understood he had to establish his independence,” he says. “I thought it looked defensive for John to distance himself from me. I was confident I could have helped him make his case."Click here to read more.
How Bush Made Cheney Angry(06 of12)
The AP reports: Former President George W. Bush says Vice President Dick Cheney angrily confronted him over Bush's decision not to pardon a former vice presidential aide over his role in the case of the leaked identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame.Bush, in an interview aired Monday on NBC's "Today" show, said Cheney was angry that Bush only commuted the sentence of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, convicted of lying during the leak investigation.Bush's appearance came as he begins promoting his memoir, "Decision Points." In the book, Bush recounts that a furious Cheney told him: "I can't believe you're going to leave a soldier on the battlefield."Bush said he worried the incident would fracture his friendship with Cheney. But he said: "I'm pleased to report we are friends today."
Talking Tea Party & Jeb Bush 2012 (07 of12)
Fox News host Sean Hannity sat down with former President Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, for an hour-long interview set to air tonight at 9PM ET.Key excerpts from the interview are below:On the rise of the Tea Party movement:"I see democracy working. People are expressing a level of frustration or concern and they're getting involved in the process. And the truth of the matter is democracy works in America. When Senator Brown wins, the attitude began to change. People showed up and voted. And people are concerned enough to take to the streets. And to me to watch people participating in the democratic system is good. It's a good thing for the country. It inspires me to know that our democracy still functions. What would be terrible is if people were frustrated and they didn't do anything."On whether he thinks his brother Jeb will ever be President:"I wish he would. He has to run first. And he has made it clear he is not running in 2012. And when the man says, 'I'm not running,' he means it. I wish he would run.Click here to read more excerpts from the one-on-one with the former president.
Cheney Lurks Just Beneath Bush's Words(08 of12)
HuffPost's Dan Froomkin reports:Some initial reports about former president George W. Bush's new memoir, "Decision Points," suggest that it refutes the theory that Dick Cheney was the true power behind the throne.It's hardly surprising, of course, that in Bush's reimagining of his presidency he would not give that theory any ammunition, at least not overtly. But Cheney is everywhere in the book, if you know how to look.As several observers have previously noted, Bush in his memoir repeatedly complains of being "blindsided." He was "blindsided" by the pictures of torture at Abu Ghraib, an utterly predictable outcome of his administration's decision to disregard previously inviolable rules respecting the basic human rights of detainees. He was "blindsided" by the controversy within his own Justice Department about warrantless surveillance techniques that were blatantly illegal. He was "blindsided" by the financial crisis, a side effect of an administration ethos that big business could do no wrong and that regulators were the problem.The common theme is that these three areas were among the many that Bush essentially arrogated to Cheney.Click here to read more.
Bush's Opposition To Abortion Grew After Mother Showed Him Dead Fetus In A Jar(09 of12)
HuffPost's Nick Wing reports:Former president George W. Bush explained recently that a formative event in his staunch pro-life stance came when his mother, Barbara Bush, showed him the remains of a human fetus in a jar when he was a teenager, the result of an earlier miscarriage by the elder Bush."There's no question that affected me, a philosophy that we should respect life", he told NBC's Matt Lauer. Bush then reads from his upcoming book "Decision Points:""I never expected to see the remains of the [fetus], which she had saved in a jar to bring to the hospital." the 43rd President of the United States read. "There was a human life, a little brother or sister." As The Daily Telegraphpoints out, however, the view that was implanted in the future president's mind with the display, is not one that she herself holds:
Barbara Bush, who became First Lady when her husband George Bush Snr was elected president in 1988, favours abortion rights. She once said: "I hate abortions, but just could not make that choice for someone else."According to Bush, he didn't recount the story primarily to explain the genesis of his anti-abortion views, but rather "to show how my mom and I developed a relationship."
Bush's Response To Questions He Can't Answer(10 of12)
HuffPost's Dan Froomkin reports:George W. Bush, bursting back onto the public scene a little less than two years after he left Washington in disgrace, has come up with the most self-serving answer yet to some of the most persistent questions about the moral and practical failings of his administration: Buy my book!Bush repeatedly deflected follow-up questions from NBC's Matt Lauer in an interview aired on Monday night, suggesting that more satisfying answers could be found by purchasing his new $35 memoir.Big surprise: They can't.Click here to read more.
Bush On Bailout: I Couldn't Have Lived With Myself If Country Suffered Second Depression(11 of12)
HuffPost's Sam Stein reports:The conventional wisdom, at least in some parts of the political press, held that President George W. Bush did the Democrats a disservice by not launching his book tour before the 2010 elections. The thought process being that a reminder of the follies of his administration would have caused series headaches for the Republican Party, which was pledging that they had moved beyond the Bush years.On at least one policy front, however, it seems likely that the Obama White House would have welcomed Bush's presence in the national political conversation. For the second time in as many days promoting his book "Decision Points," Bush offered a hearty defense of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which was initiated under his watch to save failing banks but was used to tar Democrats in the 2010 elections."If you are the pres you don't have time to gamble and I didn't like using taxpayers money to bail out the people who got us in trouble. I didn't like it at all. But when you are president you are faced with stark choices and I couldn't have lived with myself had the country gone into a deep depression," Bush said, during a radio interview with conservative host Rush Limbaugh. "People's lives would have been affected, people thrown out of work. There are a lot of people not in work today and all of us are concerned about that. But the situation could have been a lot worse."Click here to read more.
Bush Interview Suffers RATINGS FAIL(12 of12)
HuffPost's Jason Linkins reports:Despite all of our efforts to talk about Matt Lauer's interview with former President George W. Bush, it seems that the televised tete-a-tete was something of a ratings disaster for NBC. TV By The Numbers has the, you know... numbers:
NBC's Monday woes continue to grow as the Matt Lauer interview of George W. Bush scored just a 1.7 adults 18-49 rating, and its later shows tumbled. The special Matt Lauer Reports finished with lower adults 18-49 ratings than all episodes of Chuck this season. The Event fell 15% (vs. 10/25) to a series low 1.7 adults 18-49 rating, and Chase was down 6% (vs. 10/25) to just a 1.2 rating, which was also a series low.It is interesting to get to write about an NBC ratings debacle that wasn't the fault of Jay Leno or Jeff Zucker.(And yes, in case you were wondering, Conan beat Bush-Lauer, too.)
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