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Title: Boy Genius: Karl Rove, the Brains Behind the Remarkable Political Triumph of George W. Bush by Lou Dubose, Jan Reid, Carl M. Cannon ISBN: 1-58648-192-4 Publisher: PublicAffairs Pub. Date: 21 January, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.89 (9 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: The Best and The Scummiest
Comment: Every human endeavor has its masters. There are leading physicists, writers, teachers, architects, carpenters and chefs.
The demi-monde also has its corp of top pick-pockets, pimps, snitches and flimflammers. It is to this latter list that we can write the name of Karl Rove. His talents add nothing useful to the world; to the contrary, he and his cabal of mayberry machiavellians' efforts are directed toward finding people's weaknesses and exploiting them, tearing down peoples lives and putting any skeletons on public display, so that "their" guy might win. "Boy Genius" depicts the political career of Karl Rove, how he honed his skill and applied them to the benefit of conservative Republicans and especially to George W. Bush.
The authors do give some background information on Rove and briefly describe how he came to embrace right-wing politics.
As a young man, he is described as a "nerd" and one can well imagine that he was the boy who gotten beaten up on the playground at school. But no thorough psychological profiles are hazarded in this work. We learn only that Rove is a rather emotionless person. The authors offer a couple of "Oprah moments" that hint that their subject might harbor some modicum
of humanity. Despite a couple of these excursions into sentimentality, Dubose et al. stick mostly to the political highlights that mark Rove's life. And that is just as well, because we intuit that if we extracted the electoral machinations from this biography, there would be almost nothing left.
But reading this book reveals as much about we Americans and our times as it does about Rove. We would hope to be titilated by some of Rove's underhanded schemes to win elections, but instead find ourselves rather bored with the enterprise. We are used to this sort of dirty dealing and know that both major parties engage in these activities. It's old hat. Karl Rove just happens to be the best and the scummiest at the game that goes on all the time. The victors in political affairs are not those who present the best ideas but rather those who know how to manipulate through the electronic media. We are given in this book an introduction to the Cardinal Richelieu of the Nouveau Regime, Karl Rove.
Rating: 4
Summary: This is an excellent primer
Comment: This is an excellent primer to the illustrious career of "Bush's Brain" as he is called. Of the two books presently popular ("Bush's Brain" is the other) this is the more balanced and thorough; indeed, it often times seems that the authors of Bush's Brain had used this for their source, and there is very little information in that book that is not in here. Don't bother to read both, if you're just looking for an introduction to the subject. A careful portrait of the crafty man that learned his tricks (and even instructed others in the same) during the time of "Tricky Dick" Nixon himself. Must read if you are at all interested in learning how Bush Jr. got to the oval office and why all the "big money" lined up behind him as miraculously early as it did.
Rating: 5
Summary: Best political book I've read this year
Comment: I found "Boy Genius" to be insightful, compelling and humorous. The book is written by three journalists, two of whom followed Karl Rove throughout his days in Texas and a third who writes for the National Journal. The outline of the book is a chronological history of the campaigns and administrations Rove has managed or contributed to. The book is full of interesting antecdotes that really give you an idea of what Rove is all about and his motivations for the directions in which he takes his advisees. Most importantly, after reading this book I would describe Karl Rove as a winner, which makes this an interesting read no matter what your politics.
Two things the potential reader should know are 1) the majority of the book is about Texas politics and Rove's work in that state, and 2) the authors demonstrate definite left leanings in their storytelling, although it mainly shows through in their humor and when they point out the irony that George W. Bush never fails to provide for them. These caveats are fairly minor, I think most political readers will enjoy this one.
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Title: Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential by James Moore, Wayne Slater, James C. Moore ISBN: 0471423270 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 21 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: Bushwhacked : Life in George W. Bush's America by Lou Dubose, Molly Ivins ISBN: 0375507523 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 23 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Shrub : The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush by Molly Ivins, Lou Dubose, Lou Dubose, Molly Ivins ISBN: 0375757147 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: 10 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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Title: Made In Texas: George W. Bush and the Southern Takeover of American Politics by Michael Lind ISBN: 0465041213 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 17 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: The Lies of George W. Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception by David Corn ISBN: 1400050669 Publisher: Crown Pub. Date: 30 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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