Positive Spin



Actual cover of book.

Yesterday, on the way home from West Hartford, I finished the audio version of George Bush's book (memoirs): Decision Points (see my previous posting on January 9th).  Although I would rather not use this blog space to discuss political philosphy, I have a couple of observations after listening to this book.
First, I am glad that the author was the narrator. Many times, I am disappointed to listen to a book written by a person who is capable of doing the audio version but instead defers to an actor. I think it shows a commitment on the part of the author to do the audio version.

One of the reasons Bush SR. (GHWB) lost his reelection bid was due to a perception that he had lost touch with the average person. There was an incident where he visited a grocery store and was amazed to encounter price scanners at the cash registers. Because many had been dealing with the scanners for a couple years, people concluded that GHWB was out of touch with the average american.

Listening to GWB's book got me to wonder if the President of the United States (POTUS) is inherently separated from the people due to all the security and global issues that are on the table. While GWB seems to have good intentions about what he wanted to do, I wonder if he was able to grasp the reality of the ramifications on the average person on the actions that he took. This arrangement (of the POTUS) may be a supreme example of the application of the "law of unintended consequences."

Bush talks about his intentions in confronting problems and his reasoning behind his solutions. He even admits to making some mistakes and has some regrets about some of his priorities (e.g., social security). It seems apparent to me that one of his objectives for this book is to lay the groundwork for a positive interpretation of his presidency in the future.