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Summary: The bigger picture
Review: Probably the most useful aspect of this book is that it provides a way of looking at Bush's campaign messages from a communications viewpoint, free of the chaff that distracts. The author's insights into Bush's mindset are quite valid, and they are disturbing. I read the older hardcover version (there is an updated paperback edition), which turned out to be an advantage, because many of the events we are seeing now are being handled by the Bush administration in exactly the way one would expect if the book's insights are valid. It appears they are. The author's opinions on television are especially interesting, and the book is worth the read. The author has a philosophical stance that is readily evident, but with a few exceptions, it does not blind him because he uses Bush's own words and history to bolster his arguments. It is a serious work, not humor based on Bush's notorious inability to speak English, although howlers are inevitable.
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Summary: A MUST READ IN THESE TRYING TIMES
Review: Look, I lost 3 dear friends on 9/11 in NYC. And I actually find this book a must read in these trying times. This insightful book is NOT mere joke book on Bush's inability to speak the English language, but about how our country is being duped by his administration and possible our responsibility in allowing him to use our nation's tragedies as a means to an end.Bravo, bravo.
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Summary: BRAVO AND THANK YOU
Review: I'm only up to page xix in the introduction and it is the breath of fresh air I've been longing for since the 2000 Presidential Election. Thank you Mr. Miller, from the bottom of my heart, I thank you.
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Summary: Schpellcheken! Für das Vaterland!
Review: I guess it figures that the only way this guy can take shots at our President is to criticize his lack of English skills. Too bad I'm too lazy to write a book on this author's lack of tact.
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Summary: He's right--but he fights a little dirty
Review: I read this book in a couple of sittings and lost some sleep for that reason. It is thoroughly researched and written. Miller makes a compelling case that George W. Bush is semi-literate, ill-prepared for the office, lazy, and more than a little mean-spirited. His thesis that TV & the media are largely responsible for the decline of the American politic is also convincing. I think, however, this would be a better book if Miller wasn't so transparently hostile to Bush and conservatives. Granted, Pres. Bush is the easiest of rhetorical targets, but I think Miller takes some cheap shots and stretches unnecessarily in his analysis of Bush's language. As a result, it will be a little too easy for moderates and conservatives to dismiss this author. But, Miller is to be commended for going beyond the usual catalog of "Bushisms" to an attempt to understand what Bush's famed inability to articulate reveals about the man.
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Summary: Finally the truth...
Review: This book debunks many myths about George Jr.'s "rise" to power, including the truth (finally) about his and his party's hypocrisy. Well-researched, informative, straightforward, and impossible to refute, The Bush Dyslexicon is the vocalization of all that I feared about our "fearless leader." It traces George Jr.'s roots (through his father and the Nixon years), comparing him to Tricky Dick and Reagan, then debunks the myth of the "liberal media" with irrefutable evidence that the media does indeed swing right. The Dyslexicon describes the media's and the general public's ability to forget the past, in that George Jr. effectively stole the presidency from Al Gore, and now discuss his "winning the election." What?! The book also describes his (failed) attempts to relate to the common man, to be a uniter, to be a compassionate conservative, although he often claims to be just these things. It also demonstrates his illiteracy and his pride in being a "common man." Ripe with examples of his gaffes, this book is at once an hysterical and disturbing look at the "leader" of the free world and how he came to (or more accurately was handed) power.
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Summary: Every Reader Who Reads Should Read a Book, Maybe This One
Review: I got to start reading less depressing books. I just finished one on slavery. Not that this isn't a not wonderful book. Whoops. There's another problem with reading this- I noticed I started to write and talk like Bush. But despite it being depressing, and effecting my diction, it is a very well written book. Copious sourcing and footnotes convince the reader of the truth Miller conveys. However, it is unlikely that a die-hard Bush supporter would be convinced- even if someone were to rise from the dead, they still would not believe. I found it scary to realize how very vindictive Bush was, and how he had truly purposely tried to abscond with democracy. I was amazed to hear about his family's ties to the Nazis, Fascists, and very strongly, to Nixon, who both Bush's considered a role model. How Bush tried to skirt the issue completely when asked if his faith in Jesus and his faith in the death penalty might be in conflict. It hurt my soul to hear his meanness to average people who expressed their opinion to him, or the jokes he told about The Tragedy. A central tenent of the book can be summed up as: Bush is perhaps our most illiterate and uneducated president. But he is not stupid. He knows how to play the masses, and the conservative press (i.e. the American press) supports him in this effort because he is the perfect TV President- expressing himself continuously in short tautologies that fit as sound bytes. I honestly did not know till reading this that it turned out Gore had actually won Florida!- because the media didn't report it, when they learned about it after The Tragedy. And yet as a Christian I am called to obey him and pray for him. Despite the coup, despite the black disenfranchisement, the suspension of the constitution and Bill of Rights subsequently, despite his being related to 14 previous presidents- in sum, we live in a monarchy- I am still called to obey him and pray for him. It makes sense, after all- those Biblical passages were written when Nero and other emporers were murdering the Christians. But now, after reading this book, my prayers for our President are that he might learn and feel compassion, from the gut. That he might actually act, try to act, as Jesus did, and felt. That he would change, truly this time, and be teachable, and willing to change. This is the eye-opening text. But a couple flaws, I think. While Miller's quotes are in context and well supported, so there is little doubt to their authenticity, Bush is not satan, or Hitler. It would have been nice to hear some of the positive sides to the man. There must be some. Also, Miller's chapter on religion was frankly offensive. He attacks central tenents off the Christian faith, ascribing them to merely George Bush and his ilk, and then denigrates them. Just because Bush believes it, does not make it bad.
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Summary: A Very Good Book
Review: This is, in short, a very good book, well worth reading and recommending. It eloquently exposes both the dangerous evolution of our national media and the dangerous strengths and weaknesses of this President and his Administration. These are important expositions, and they shouldn't be ignored because they are difficult to digest and more difficult to address, or because blind loyalty to this President is a convenient proxy for loyalty to this country.
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Summary: Turning and turning in the widening gyre
Review: This is very difficult book to review. Simply put, it is excellent. However, I don't think its real import lies in what it has to say about our current media culture. The reviewers, even those quoted on the book itself, praise the book's insight into the recent presidential election and the way we elect our leaders. But the book is, I think, more important for what it says about this Presidency specifically. Certainly there are problems both deep and wide with our media, which by and large have abrogated the traditional responsibilities of the fourth estate, but the more immediate problem is with the Bush administration, which has become substantially inviolate in the wake of the tragic disaster of 9/11. Much of what can be said for this book, and much of what is said by it, is at least difficult to voice in the current climate of blind loyalty to an intellectually deficient, startlingly ignorant President who was installed rather elected and leads, if indeed he does lead, not as a self-proclaimed "compassionate conservative" but pitilessly and recklessly toward an uncertain future.
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Summary: Is Bush really as stupid as he acts?
Review: No, says Miller. This book offers the most plausible explanation for the strange behavior and weird gaffes of the current resident of the White House. It is the portrait of a man who is anything but compassionate or conservative. A fascinating study of a shadow of a man.
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