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Thursday, March 25, 2004

By John Podhoretz ISBN 0-312-32472-3 St. Martin's Press 288 pp. Purchase This Book

Just in case the subtitle of "Bush Country: How Dubya Became A Great President While Driving Liberals Insane" leaves any doubt, let's be clear: John Podhoretz likes President Bush.

According to Podhoretz, "Bush is the best presidential speaker since Franklin Delano Roosevelt." He's a brilliant political gamesman, and "he goes all out for policies he belives will, first, be best for the country, then for his party, and, last, for his own political future." The current president, Podhoretz argues, has freed the Republican Party from "the pinched and parsimonious spirit under which it suffered during his father's tenure and replace[d] it with an expansive, positive, even exuberant, spirit of his own."

Presidential praise, however, is only half the agenda in "Bush Country." Chapters charting the president's evolution as a leader ("Return to Reaganism," "The Visionary," etc.) alternate with those that blast eight different "crazy liberal" ideas. These "debunking" essays delight in quoting Bush's more-histrionic critics, and provide an expansive list of people Podhoretz apparently doesn't like -- everyone from Maureen Dowd to David Gergen to Carlos Fuentes to Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Calif.

The rebuttals themselves vary in their success. Podhoretz does a much better job of parrying the "Bush Is a Liar" attack, for example, than he does the allegation that "Bush Wants to Bankrupt the Government." And in some cases -- most notably the idea that "Bush Is Hitler... Only Not as Talented" -- Podhoretz rails against an "argument" that few if any reasonable Americans would make. (For an author who praises Bush's refusal to let foreigners dictate his protection of U.S. interests, Podhoretz is easily peeved by Mexican novelists and European intellectuals.)

For all their jabs and entertainment value, though, the "crazy liberal idea" chapters are "Bush Country"'s far less interesting half. Elsewhere in the book, Podhoretz provides his take on the Bush dynasty's father-son relationship; reminds readers how strongly the president spoke out in support of Arab Americans after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks; and makes a compelling argument that Bush's AIDS intiative in Africa is both a moral and a political triumph. And while his interpretation of the president's pre-Sept. 11 performance may not convince Bush's critics, it does provide a well-reasoned look at an oft-neglected portion of the president's legacy to date.

Like most books this polemical, "Bush Country" does have its blind spots. Podhoretz chides the adminstration for its steel tarriffs decision, but he chalks up the president's actions on campaign finance and Medicare reform as both unavoidable political expediency and fulfillment of Bush's "reformer with results" campaign pledge. Podhoretz also is too quick to see anti-semitism in neo-conservative critics like Michael Lind and others (much as Lind can usually ascribe sinister motives to the Bush administation). And selective quotation, like statistics, can always be used to make the opposition look ridiculous.

For the most part, though, "Bush Country" accomplishes what Podhoretz presumably intended. It lauds the president in a way that will have supporters nodding, provides arguments the faithful can use to woo undecided Americans, and pokes a great deal of fun at those liberals who "Dubya" drives insane. --Troy K. Schneider, NationalJournal.com

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