Executive Branch, U.S. Politics in the Post Cold-War Era, United States History - 20th Century - 1945 to 2000, U.S. - Political Biography, U.S. Politics - History, U.S. Elections

Ambling into History: The Unlikely Odyssey of George W. Bush

Name: Ambling into History: The Unlikely Odyssey of George W. Bush
Author: Frank Bruni
ISBN: 9780060937829

by Frank Bruni

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Overview

The unlikely Odyssey of George W. Bush.

As the principal New York Times reporter assigned to cover George W. Bush's presidential campaign from its earliest stages – and then as a White House correspondent – Frank Bruni has spent as much time around Bush over the last two years as any other reporter.

In Ambling Into History, Bruni paints the most thorough, balanced, eloquent and lively portrait yet of a man in many ways ill–suited to the office he sought and won, focusing on small moments that often escaped the news media's notice. From the author's initial introduction to Bush through a nutty election night and Bush's first months in office, Bruni captures the president's familiar and less familiar oddities and takes readers on an often funny, usually irreverent, journey into the strange, closed universe – or bubble – of campaign life.

The result is an original take on the political process and a detailed study of George W. Bush as most people have never seen him.

Synopsis

As the principal New York Times reporter assigned to cover George W. Bush's presidential campaign from it's earliest stages—and then as a White House correspondent—Frank Bruni has spent as much time around Bush over the last two years as any other reporter.

In Bushed, Bruni paints the most thorough, balanced, eloquent, and lively portrait yet of a man in many ways ill-suited to the office he sought and won, focusing on small moments that often escaped the news media's notice. From the author's initial introduction to Bush through a nutty election night and Bush's first months in office, Bruni captures the president's familiar and less familiar oddities and takes readers on an often funny, usually irreverent journey into the strange, closed universe—or "bubble"—of campaign life. The result is an original take on the political process and a detailed glimpse of George W. Bush as most Americans have never seen him before.

About the Author:
Frank Bruni is the co-author of two books, Consumer Terrorism and A Gospel of Shame. He was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for feature writing and was named by Brill's Content as one of the 50 most influential journalists of 2000 for his reporting on Bush. He lives and works in Washington, D.C.

Publishers Weekly

Bruni, White House correspondent for the New York Times, aims to entice readers who want to know more about their commander-in-chief, yet he focuses on the seemingly trivial aspects of Bush's personality, small moments that he believes "reveal every bit as much about Bush as large ones": Bush sticking his fingers in Bruni's ears to indicate something is off the record. Or Bush holding his pinkie to the corner of his mouth la Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers movies. Most of these observations reside firmly in the Bush-as-intellectual-lightweight tradition. But Bruni also acknowledges many times when Bush surprised him with "flashes of cleverness" as when, reflecting on his patrimony, Bush offered stabbing insights into the similar advantages of top New York Times executive Arthur Sulzberger Jr., whose family has owned Bruni's newspaper for generations. Taken together, Bruni's minute observations do present a cohesive portrait of George W. Bush. The problem is, it's Bush the Candidate, not Bush the President who appears only briefly at the end. For the most part, the book focuses on the 2000 campaign, the last period during which reporters had open access to Bush. Thus, Bruni finds himself writing about Bush on the wrong side of September 11. What does remain interesting are the glimpses that Bruni provides of the journalistic side of the campaign, which the author says reached "new depths of disingenuous behavior" (e.g., reporters manufacturing arguments between candidates in order to trump up stories, as Bruni admits he and others frequently did). These insights are surprising and instructional and far more likely to remain relevant than any caricature of the wartime president as a "timeless fraternity boy." Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

About the Author, Frank Bruni

Frank Bruni, a reporter in the Washington bureau of the New York Times, now writes full-time for the Times Sunday magazine. For his previous work on other subjects, he was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing and a winner of the Polk Award for Metropolitan Reporting. He has appeared on ABC-TV's Nightline and other programs to talk about the Bush campaign and presidency.

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Editorials

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
Is George W. Bush up to the challenges of a post-9/11 presidency? Frank Bruni, the reporter who covered the Bush presidential campaign for The New York Times, takes a close look at this son of a former president, a man whom history tapped on the shoulder and commanded to rise to the occasion.

Bruni presents two distinct George W. Bushes, one pre-9/11 and one post. His take on Bush prior to the attacks is of a man who is naturally and spontaneously jovial and lighthearted with everyone he meets. He can't bear to be away from his Midland, Texas, ranch -- either to campaign for the White House or to occupy it. The reader may wonder why he made the attempt. Was it expected, or assumed?

At one point, Bruni refers to Bush as a man struggling with his "inner imp." His penchant for tagging fellow politicians and members of the press with humorous and colorful nicknames -- he calls Bruni "Pancho" at one point -- is one manifestation of this. He can hardly keep a straight face at formal functions, literally fighting back the urge to cut up.

After the attacks, there is an understandable sobering, of course, as Bush is thrust into a situation no one could have imagined. His speech on September 20th is well received, and a country suddenly at war seems to embrace this man who many felt shouldn't have been in the Oval Office to begin with. In a way, Bush's well-chronicled "less cerebral" style serves him well; his direct "Let's go get the evildoers"type statements mirror the visceral emotions many citizens share. The Taliban's quick collapse in Afghanistan earns him deserved plaudits.

Of course, there was more going on in America than just the war against terrorism as Bush completed his first year in office. From the beginning, he received sharp criticism for his abandonment of many Clinton administration environmental protection directives, and his appointment of hard-right Cabinet members such as John Ashcroft made many doubt his famous campaign pledge, "I'm a uniter, not a divider." But Bruni captures Bush best with this most ironic -- and prophetic -- pre-9/11 quote: "You never know where life is going to take you." (Nicholas Sinisi)

Nicholas Sinisi is the Barnes & Noble.com Current Affairs editor.

Publishers Weekly

Library Journal

Respected New York Times reporter Bruni, who covered the Bush campaign in 2000, brings insight, wit, and intelligence to this effort to understand the makeup and character of the 43rd President of the United States. While this is a campaign chronicle, it is also an attempt to get to the roots of who George W. Bush is and the President he is becoming. Bruni portrays Bush as a more complex and contradictory man than he appears on the surface, with unrecognized strengths and obvious limitations. No intellectual, Bush is presented as a man of quirky intelligence with a capacity for applying his core values to problems but whose misuse of language and repeated malapropisms (e.g., Bush's saying that he sympathizes with the difficulties some Americans face in trying "to put food on your family") gives the impression of a man lost in the world of ideas. Full of insider stories from the campaign, this book will likely become one of the earliest available keys in deciphering the true character of George W. Bush. Michael A. Genovese, Loyola Marymount Univ., Los Angeles Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

New Yorker

Bruni, who covered the Bush campaign and the early Bush White House for the Times, announces at the start that Bush's ideology, his policies, and his life story "have been fairly well established," so he won't be discussing them. That's conceding an awful lot of ground, but within the narrow confines in which Bruni had to operate as a correspondent and has chosen to operate as an author -- minute observation of the public Bush -- he does a very good job. Bruni comes across as honest and perceptive, more prejudiced against Bush's opponents than in favor of Bush himself. And Bush comes across as a curious figure to be President; the first non-overachiever in memory to hold the job, he possesses a peculiar mixture of humility and presumption. Bruni, like many people who know Bush, seems to like him but not to completely respect him; he also doesn't appear to buy the patronizing idea that Bush suddenly grew up, at the age of fifty-five, on September 11th.

Kirkus Reviews

Insightful memoir of Bush's 2000 presidential campaign by a New York Times correspondent. Traveling with the candidate, Bruni initially found him superficial, childish, and largely unknowledgeable about world affairs-unprepared and even unmotivated to be president. As they became better acquainted, the journalist began to see and appreciate Bush's basic goodness and kindness toward others, his flashes of wit and compassion, his devotion to family, the loyalty he engendered in friends and associates, and his deep religious faith. Bruni shares the fruits of many close encounters with the Bushes: wife Laura is either extremely reticent or very dull; Mom Barbara is not above making catty remarks about the Clintons; daughters Jenna and Barbara barely pay attention to the campaign; George W. himself gets painfully homesick for Texas and is likely to fly off the handle at anyone who gets between him and his favorite meal (a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich). The author offers sharp, informed views about the troubled nature of big-money politics, from the unhealthy predominance of spin over substance to the complicity of the reporters who know better but participate in the frenzy for breaking stories anyway. Bruni watches Bush mature first as a candidate, then as president; he begins and ends with discussion of September 11, favorably rating his response and growth under trying circumstances. Bush was not ideal presidential material, suggests the author, but he's not much kinder to candidate Al Gore; Bruni's conclusion seems to be that for a variety of reasons, Americans in the year 2000 wanted a president who did not seem particularly eager or qualified for the job. The subject and many of theincidents discussed here are familiar, but this economically written and tightly organized account is a pleasure to read. One of the few insider accounts of an American political campaign to successfully reveal the immense impact the process itself has on shaping candidates and, in the end, public officials.