George W. Bush

Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House by Peter Baker

Tier 2

George W. Bush was a bad president. There’s no way to escape that fact. With many presidents, there is a debate, a way to argue for the good and bad of their tenure in office. There really isn’t the room to do that with Bush. You can argue he was a good man put in a bad position. You could argue his advisors led him astray. You could argue he was dealt a bad hand and played it poorly. But in the end, you cannot escape the fact that his presidency was a failure.

Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House offers readers a captivating and in-depth exploration of both Bush and Cheney’s time in power. As we delve into the pages of this thought-provoking narrative, we'll scrutinize key moments, including the handling of Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq War, to better understand what went wrong.

One of the strengths of Baker's book lies in its ability to illuminate the intricate partnership between George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Baker's meticulous research and narrative prowess provide readers with a front-row seat to the inner workings of this consequential partnership.

The relationship between the president and vice president can be extremely contingent upon the president. You have examples like JFK and LBJ, where Kennedy was brutal toward his vice president (this was a failure by Kennedy. He should’ve seen the value LBJ brought, and if he had, he might’ve gotten more done in his tragically short tenure in office). Alternatively, you have partnerships where the president delegates specific tasks to his vice president (Obama and Biden come to mind here). But, as far as I’m concerned, this is the only administration where the president and vice president seemed to be on equal footing. Bush often deferred to Cheney. He let Cheney and other individuals in Cheney’s orbit set much of their foreign policy, and we, as a nation, had to live with the results.

Cheney was a Republican stalwart who had served in many positions over the years, including as Bush’s father’s Secretary of Defense. He was seen as the embodiment of neo-con foreign policy, and along with Rumsfeld (another legend in the Republican Party), Cheney set much of the administration's horrendous foreign policy.

Undoubtedly, one of the most significant periods of the book revolves around the decision to invade Iraq in 2003. The war, launched under the banner of addressing imagined weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and the broader War on Terror, would become a defining moment for the Bush administration. Unfortunately, as subsequent events unfolded, the justification for the war came under intense scrutiny.

In the aftermath of the invasion, it became clear that the intelligence regarding WMDs in Iraq was flawed. No conclusive evidence of such weapons was found, leading to widespread criticism and accusations of misinformation. This failure to accurately assess the situation not only damaged the administration's credibility but also contributed to the region's destabilization, with long-lasting consequences that are still felt today. It seems clear from this book and supporting research that the administration was aware of the questionable intelligence but chose to move forward anyway. Sending Colin Powell—the cleanest member of the administration—to all but lie to the UN was a particularly embarrassing and deplorable moment in this chapter in our nation’s history.

Abu Ghraib also needs to be mentioned here. I don’t have the space to fully dive into the horrific events perpetrated there. It is clear to me that, at the least, Rumsfeld was well aware of what was taking place in that prison. Our leaders should be held accountable when atrocities like this are committed. They were not, and that is shameful.

But it wasn’t foreign policy alone that doomed this administration. Another dark moment in the Bush presidency was the federal response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The storm's devastation laid bare the inadequacies of the government's disaster response and exposed the vulnerability of the nation's emergency management systems. Baker meticulously details the events leading up to and following the hurricane, shedding light on the bureaucratic breakdowns and missteps that exacerbated an already dire situation.

The delayed and insufficient federal response to the disaster in New Orleans revealed a lack of preparedness and effective coordination at the highest levels of government. Images of citizens stranded on rooftops and in the Superdome became a symbol of governmental failure, further tarnishing Bush's already crumbling image and reinforcing the perception of an administration out of touch with the needs of its citizens—poor, black citizens in particular.

Going into this book, I was expecting a damning indictment of a failed presidency. And that was certainly there, but Baker pulls back in moments. He tries to add scope and show the complexities of leadership. There are a thousand decisions to be made every day, and a few bad ones can put an administration on an inalterable path toward destruction. I do not give Bush and Cheney, and the rest of the administration, a pass on any of their decisions. The job is to make those choices and live with the consequences. They knowingly made those choices and should be held accountable for their failures. Baker mostly seems to agree but, in moments, is willing to grant Bush and Cheney some forbearance that I am not.

The Bush presidency ended with a bang—the financial collapse of 2008. Bush certainly doubled down on all the economic policies of his three predecessors, but it’s hard to put this one solely at his feet. Reagan, Bush, and Clinton all had similar policies, and it was just George W. Bush who was left holding the bag. That doesn’t excuse him, and he only made it worse, but this was a national rot.  

As I stated at the beginning, this was a bad presidency. There are other failures I haven’t mentioned here. There were the occasional successes as well, but they hardly bear discussing in the shadow of his looming failures. The Iraq War and the response to Hurricane Katrina stand out as particularly egregious examples. These failures left a lasting imprint on the collective memory of the American people and the way we view the office. Yet, despite highlighting the administration’s failings, Baker's comprehensive exploration encourages readers to move beyond the surface-level critique and grapple with the intricacies of leadership in times of crisis.

The book challenges us to consider the limitations of leadership, the importance of accountability, and the enduring impact of consequential decisions on a nation's trajectory. Days of Fire invites us to engage in a thoughtful and critical examination of history, reminding us that understanding the past is essential for navigating the complexities of the present and shaping a more resilient and responsive future.

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