The Right Man: The Surprise Presidency of George W. Bush [Paperback]

Congratualations to David Frum for writing such an interesting and insitful book into the Bush administration.

With devastating candor, reinforced by hero worship, Frum details the intensity of the control
freaks who run the Bush administration. He unveils a staff more dedicated to total loyalty to a
leader than is ever seen on The Sopranos, showing an image of sterile tidiness that is shocked by
Clinton staffers who anything as crude as pizza at midnight.

As an outsider, despite his wet puppy craving for affection, Frum offers a variety of devastating --
or magnificently uplifting -- insights into the character and goals of Bush. This is a book that will
thrill every conservative and dismay anyone who thinks for himself.

Frum, like Bush, is not satisfied with being right unless he can prove others wrong. Thus, the 'you
are with us or with the terrorists' fanaticism; control freaks never tolerate an independent thought. It
is hardly surprising that so few outside the US share this fanaticism; maybe it's because "them
furriners" know that anyone who is as war with others is not at peace with themself.

Let's face it: Bush has the world's toughest job. Anything he does affects the world. Nothing that
98 percent of the world's leaders do has more than a ripple impact on events; for example, a
unilateral decision by Canada to launch a war on terror would heard merely as a superb example
of Canadian humour instead of courageous resolve.

Frum is a superb writer, analyst and story teller, skilled at using what he says is a Bush technique.
He says Bush wins loyalty by sharing little personal secrets with those in a personal conversation,
"thrusting a gift upon us, the most precious gift a person can offer: a little piece of himself. By
revealing himself to us, he bound us to him." This book is filled with such personal insights in an
effort to generate loyalty for Bush. You won't find many "insider" books that are better than Frum.

So why does Bush so infuriate people? Well, if he's right, he invalidates generations of wishful
dreams and empty thoughts that have guided American policy toward the Arabs for at least the
past 50 years. If he's wrong, his bumbling bombast will give us generations of unrest, terror and
war. Our future rests on the roll of Bush's iron dice.

Whether you like or fear Bush, there's plenty here to reinforce your views in a bright, candid and
easy-to-read 284 pages. Conservatives will finish it and contentedly sigh, "Thank God." With a
tremor in their voice, liberals will beg, "Please, God . . ."

Quite simply, Frum says, Bush intends to remake the Arab world. He sees Iraq, an ally of the
Nazis in 1940, as merely the first and wobbliest domino. Bush is tired of oil patch tyrants. By the
time US troops come home, he expects every Arab will know the meaning of "a government of all
the people, by all the people, for all the people."

No, that isn't a Lincoln quote. It's from Theodore Parker on May 29, 1850, at the NE
Anti-Slavery Convention in Boston. Like Parker, Bush intends to set in motion a great chain of
events such as those which ended slavery by 1865 in the US. Frum hopes a similar vision will
topple tyranny in today's Arab world.

So, what is Bush like? Frum concludes, "He is impatient and quick to anger; sometimes glib, even
dogmatic; often uncurious and as a result ill informed; more convention in his thinking than a leader
probably should be. But outweighing the faults are his virtues: decency, honesty, rectitude, courage,
and tenacity."

Anyone, on either side of Bush's crusade to reorder, reform and remap the Arab world will find
this book to be an Aladdin's treasure of fascinating information, opinions and dreams. The timing
for it is perfect.