Dead Certain

"Draper is an excellent political reporter steeped in the Texas background of Bush’s political story. He also had access that other reporters didn’t have – he used to work for the Texas Monthly – and this is a chronicle of the Bush presidency. He gets detail that other people weren’t in a position to get and Bush gave him several interviews when he was in office and he spoke much more candidly with him. He is good on vignettes and the book opens with a scene where George W is eating the kind of lunch a ten-year-old might eat, kind of hot dogs and ice-cream or something like that. He captures his cavalier attitude and his impatience with people. He has a lot of bottled-up aggression and hostility, and even when he’s being personable and trying to charm someone you can sense this anger just below the surface – and it very often does come to the surface. Draper is hardly a hostile outsider, there was even talk of him doing an authorised biography at one point, but even here you can sense Bush’s rage often bubbling up. What is charming about Bush is his wit and physicality, his approachability and lack of pretension – but he needs to cut people down and does it in a very effective and cruel way, like demeaning the people close to him with nicknames. He called Karl Rove “Turdblossom”. It’s a Texas flower that grows out of cowshit. The nicknames always show a kind of insight into the person and their weakness and vulnerability. He shows a serious immaturity and he’s famous for his cut -downs and nicknames."