Rating: 
Summary: An Excellent Read
Review: If you think George W Bush is unqualified to be president, after you read this book you'll be praying for the next election. Begala does a great job at exposing Bush for exactly what he is-a rich kid who somehow made it into the white house. Begala offers at least one Bushism at the start of every chapter; he also utilizes his great sense of sarcasm and humor to keep the reader from putting the book down. What also makes this book strong is that Begala gives overviews on how Bush handles many different topics such as education, the environment, and social security. Begala does a great job at simplifying things for the reader and he also excels at citing his work well to give it legitimacy. It is greatly disturbing to know that the president is against lowering classroom sizes, he skipped a year in the national guard, and he thinks there's no such thing as a hate crime! We need more authors like Begala to show things as they are and also to infuse the books with a little humor too.
Rating:
Summary: Its true! Our children (my peers) are not learning!
Review: Unfortunately, not being very much a liberal, I do have to agree with most points that this author makes on children in America and education. Most people of my age (high school aged) come to school everyday without the intention to learn or be productive, and false values such as cheating and forgery are regarded as a norm and sometimes even encouraged (and this coming from one of the best high schools in Philadelphia (or supposedly: Central High). I do recall last year while taking freshmen biology, for EVERY test, almost all people would make cheat sheet and hide it under their test papers. The teacher, being very much "out there", did not notice any of this and a whole entire year of biology was wasted for most people (including me unfortunately). As the difficulties of my classes increased, cheating also subsided (as with AP chem and euro), however, they were not non-existent. While discussing the AP exams taken in the States, I'd like to point out that a mere 60% is needed to achieve a 5 ("extremely well qualified") on the Chemistry test, and this is of course still very difficult for many of us to achieve (me included). This is not because my peers and I are unintelligent, but its because the way our schools are ran and also the fund that we receive. Sadly, most of the fund is going to the war and the maintenance of Iraq, and not where they should be -- in our schools. A sad link I also found is that often war is waged in order to suppress domestic issues at home and to get the general mass to "look the other way" (such as that with Louis XIV, Bismarck and even Hitler). Not to accuse Bush of being a Hitlerian, but the radical and almost belligerent stance towards Iraq did indeed successfully direct the attention of the public mass towards these supposed weapons of mass destruction (which has not been found yet) instead of domestic issues such as senior benefits, *real* tax cuts for ordinary ppl that's not the top 1%, and mostly importantly, investments in our education. Do buy this book regardless of your political stance and whether you agree with Bush's politics or not. It address something that Bush's politics has successfully veiled, and without a generation of dedicated and educated kids, the maintenance of our country's status will be very much difficult.
Rating: 
Summary: Give me a break
Review: This book, which im glad i didnt buy I read it at my local library. Obviously the author is a liberal who cant find anything but to throw insults at our president. All of his credibility, along with laughing out loud when he said that president Clinton was the smartest man he had ever known....Give me a break...
Rating: 
Summary: The exact opposite of the Clinton story
Review: Paul Begala's detailed account of the low points of President Bush's early years is historically relevant, if unbalanced reading. Clearly the agenda here is to weaken the confidence of the voting public in a surprisingly popular President. If the reader accepts Begala's agenda and reads the book just for the "facts", this becomes a story of a fortunate man almost throwing away his advantages in life, then finding redemption as a gifted and popular leader. I am giving a copy to my son in hopes that he will not make the same mistakes President Bush made early in life. The book does present an ironic contrast to President Clinton. Clinton started with so little, excelled in school, kissed the girls and charmed the people, then squandered the voters' trust and his opportunity to make history...If only he had experienced the failures Bush did as a young man, he might not have floundered at such a critical time in his own career.
Rating:
Summary: Great book. Republicans can't deny the truth.
Review: Great book. It tells about Bush's record and every major issue and boy his record isn't a clean one. Republicans may try to deny this is a book thats not true. But Begala lists every source for his information. Democrats will love it. Republicans can't deny the FACTS in this book. No matter how hard they try.......
Rating:
Summary: One Sided
Review: I rate this book a two star rating which I consider not the worst but below average. It is a short book that I was able to read in a few hours but it did hold my attention. The book presents many of the already printed infamous quotes from the President during his campaign. It starts with his priveleged background and the fact that his family's influence kept him out of Vietnam and in the National Guard, which he disappeared from for over a year. It touches breifly on his failed business ventures. But it really hits gear when discussing his record as Texas Governor and his Presidential campaign. His public record is reviewed in the book and it is packed full of information that is note worthy. The reason I couldn't give this book a higher rating was the fact that it is so obviously partisan. According to this book Bush is a flat out idiot that never did anything on his own and never did one thing right. There has to be something out there positive to write about. This book did not explore both sides. But it was easy to follow and read well. For those of you looking for some humor or some background on our President you could add this book on the list to read with others. But it should not be taken as a lone source of information.
Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing
Review: I started reading this book with great anticipation, but soon found it extremely disappointing. Paul Begala structures this book by dealing with a specific issue each chapter. He then attacks President Bush's record on each issue. Begala bases these attacks upon the assumption that the liberal view of each issue is correct and that President Bush's actions were based upon a conservative agenda, and hence wrong. Notably lacking from this structure is any reason why I should lend more credence to his view of the role of government than to President Bush's. Additionally, the author attempts humor throughout the book, but only employs two or three jokes which are used over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. I would have preferred for the author to either attack Bush from a non-biased viewpoint (it can be done quite easily, as is illustrated by "Bushisms"), or to provide more explanation/support for the liberal viewpoint (rather than just assuming it's truth) if he's going to employ it. The bottom-line is, if you're liberal you'll accept the premises easily and will probably enjoy the book. If you're convervative or independant, you'll have difficulty enjoying the book. Regardless, the main point of the book is that George W. Bush's policies do not mesh with left-wing America and you don't need to read a book to know this.
Rating: 
Summary: Then Gov Bush's record in Texas
Review: After a long flight from Australia to LAX on my way to Vegas i picked this book up from the airport bookstore as i wanted a quick read & was interested in Bush's record in Texas. As you know it was written by Paul Begala a Texan himself & along with his partner James Carville was responsible for the Clinton campaign of 92.Begala's writting style is straight to the point,full of humour & after a long flight this makes for good reading. Being from Australia & not knowing Bush's record in Texas this was an eye opener to say the least.In fairness to Begala he does point out he is fairly partisan & with that admission it is up to the reader to exercise caution & to seek out books that might not be so biast so you can get a more balanced view.
But to the subject at hand if you are a democrat this will confirm all your fears about Bush if you are a republican you might have no problems with this or say it is biased. Begala lays it all out concentrating on Bush's public & political life not his personal life.It is all here from The National Guard issue right up to Bush's strong support for Gun rights & looking out for corporate interests.Reading this you will understand how Bush managed to raise so much money & forgoed federal matching funds as corporate America has never had a better freind. With this book being easy to carry round i would have thought it would have been a good idea for the Democratic Party to do a deal with the publisher & to furnish all their party operatives with a copy of this book in 2000.Who knows it might have helped convince a few undecided voters in Florida.
Rating:
Summary: A must read for all.
Review: The corporate media continues to hide just what a corrupt, dishonest, dimwitted, child of privelege is in the oval office.
From those who brought you the the S&L scandals, the Iran-Contra debacle, and Enron, it's George 2, the sequel.
May God save us all! p.s. B- is the lowest score Yale gives, so that "good grades in college" line is disengenuous right wing propaganda.
Rating:
Summary: Funny, but obviously biased
Review: Believe me, I'm not a supporter of bush's history or actions in the white house. I picked up this book to learn a little about the man, and honestly, it's a little hard to get an objective opinion with this book. An entire novel could be written about any human being, and depending on the facts, it could either be entirely positive or entirely negative. The book was written before the 2000 election, and it even goes so far to describe a Gore asset after describing a place where Bush fails to meet the bar. It's got the facts in there, but its hard to know how to take them. This book is also already outdated at just 2 years old; it would have made a better infomercial or magazine article.
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