politics

Sometimes the Obvious Answer is the Answer

April 27, 2004

On today’s Politics & Policy page of The Wall Street Journal, Allan Murray takes on (subscription required) the question of the moment among Washington’s chattering classes: Why exactly is Bob Woodward’s book, Plan of Attack in first place on the “Suggested Reading List” of the Bush campaign website, ranking above even the loving portrait of Bush drawn by image manager and campaign advisor Karen Hughes?

Various theories have been floated. One is that the president is constitutionally unable to admit a mistake, so, having opened up his administration to Woodward, he now has to pretend the book is not an indictment. Another premise is that giving the book the administration’s seal of approval is a ploy to keep liberals from buying it. A third is that the White House has learned that attacking a book only increases its sales (hello, Richard Clarke).

Murray thinks those theories are altogether too Machiavellian. He has a simpler (and more convincing) answer to the question on all lips:

Bush likes the book.

Yes, the president is a fan of the book that an exercised Rush Limbaugh called “an anti-Bush, antiwar screed” … the book that Ivo Daalder of the liberal-leaning Brookings Institute calls “a deeply disturbing indictment of the president and his policy” … the book that would cause a Kerry “landslide” if enough people read it, according to MSNBC’s Bill Press.

How can this be? Well, Murray explains, if read with neither liberal nor conservative blinders on, the book paints a flattering portrait of Bush — and of no one else. Secretary of State Colin Powell is painted as “Hamlet on the Potomac,” forever out of the loop. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld comes off as a schemer who refuses to take a clear stand on much of anything. CIA chief George Tenet is blamed for monumental intelligence failures. Vice President Cheney is feverish with dreams of war. Only Bush, the steadfast figure at the core of this collection of flawed climbers, is portrayed almost admiringly, says Murray, a former Washington Bureau Chief of the Journal, who now performs that role for CNBC.

Sign up for CJR's daily email

“The book gets it right,” Murray explains. “The president is exactly as Mr. Woodward portrays him: a man who judges his counterparts by their character — he often uses an earthier term — rather than their intellect. A man so certain of his positions that he loses no sleep to doubts. A man who talks to God about key decisions, but avoids long discussions with advisers who disagree. Love him or hate him, this is the real George W. Bush.”

That the White House is, in effect, shilling for Woodward’s book has to be a hard pill to swallow for a whole host of commentators, from Rush Limbaugh to Brookings’ wise men.

But the case Murray makes for why it’s so is thoroughly convincing.

–Steve Lovelady

Steve Lovelady was editor of CJR Daily.