Bush, Rove, and Books: Who Knew W. Had So Much Time to Read?
Reader Comments
this is a joke
The books he has listed("The Great Upheaval", "Team of Rivals", "Mayflower" are books i have read and they each would take about 25 hours to read at 25-30 pages an hour). The Autobio of US Grant- is a PDF i have downloaded at my desk and is over 600 pages. This is an absolute joke- retired college professors do (maybe) a book a week- Rove is an college dropout and W is the least curious president in history. Why would they tell these easily disprovable lies
this is a joke
The books he has listed("The Great Upheaval", "Team of Rivals", "Mayflower" are books i have read and they each would take about 25 hours to read at 25-30 pages an hour). The Autobio of US Grant- is a PDF i have downloaded at my desk and is over 600 pages. This is an absolute joke- retired college professors do (maybe) a book a week- Rove is an college dropout and W is the least curious president in history. Why would they tell these easily disprovable lies
Bush, Rove, and Books
The first thing Mr. Farrell should do is question the veracity of Karl Rove's article. Remember, this is the guy who said whatever was necessary to justify the pitiful actions of GWB over 8 years. So let's start with some fact checking instead of taking what Rove says at face value. Is there any independent corroboration of Rove's reading story?
W's reading list
John's column is spot-on: It is well known that Bush was not a great student, at Yale or HBS, so for him to finally play 'catch up' on his education could be viewed as a 'good thing'--gives him something to talk about with Laura over the next 30 years of time in which he has nothing to do. However, reading an average of 2 books/week, while there are more important tasks to handle--reading briefing books on the war in Iraq, the status of Afghanistan, the status of Iran, the status of the world's financial situation--all of which apparently were just TOO REALISTIC, tells the American public, who pay his salary, tomes about W's mental capacity, and attitude towards his job. For those of you who voted for him, congratulations on voting for a very ignorant (well-read?) (soon to be, thank god) ex-President.
Please
Bush did not read 95 books. He doesn't read his briefing papers, but he reads books. Yeah, right.
Snark Becomes You
I agree with Mr. Schaefer from California: masterful job of damning with faint praise and then, of course, delivering the coup de grace: points for both subtlety and viciousness. It would have more politic for all concerned, though, had you refrained from bringing up the President Bush's exercise regimen--Obama's been caught working out lately, in case you haven't caught the memo, so lambasting W. for his dedication to exercise might prove...awkward. Naturally, you'll have to shift gears yet again if Obama claims to be an avid reader of Great Man biographies. Oh, wait...
Bush Reading List
I'm quite sure that Mr. Farrell would have been just as pleased to write a column criticizing President Bush for not reading...not open to outside ideas, lack of intellectual curiosity...that sort of thing. When you consider someone your enemy, you will put a negative spin on whaterer he does. This kind of writing does nothing but feed the mob.
Who knew he could read?
Is there any human capable of reading, with any knowledge of Rove and his career, who believes this story?
I am fairly certain that George Bush can read. After all, he does read the speeches that his writers have written for him. He reads them very badly, but he does seem to read them. No one ever claimed he could write any of those speeches.
He has been widely described as a man of limited curiosity and intellect. Yale and Harvard will never recover their reputation as elite universities after having awarded him a degree following a college experience mostly devoted to stuffing cocaine up his nose and drinking unbelievable amounts of booze.
While he probably can read, I don't believe he has read any of the books mentioned in the article. I don't believe he has read 95 books in his lifetime (unless we count comic books).
Rove Bush book reading
Did any of the books come with crayons?
Mr. Bush, a reader?
I was surprised as anyone to learn that Mr. Bush is a reader. I was aware that his staff, particularly during the earlier part of his administration took time at night to read him stories of past presidents and their leadership styles. And to my knowledge, this was continuing throughout 2003 to 2005. Word has it that his aide, Ari Fleisher was consistently bombarded by requests from the President to " Please, please read that one to me again".
