Rating: 
Summary: Please read this book before the next election!
Review: In a time where politicians are suspect, truth is hard to catch, and both Democrats and Republicans have closets full of skeleton's made public, this witty, insightful analysis of George W. Bush, the Texas political incubator, power and deceit, is enlightening. If spoon full of sugar make the medicine go down, this ten gallon serving of humor makes the dose of reality and analysis easier to swallow. It is a quick read, you can spend a few minutes,here and there, or an evening being entertained and informed. It would be an great national service if Ivins would do such a piece on all our presidential candidates, before the next election! If you have run the Bush Banner up your flagpole next to Old Glory you will be offended. If you have pondered how this man ascended to the American thrown you will find this very helpful.
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Summary: A LITTLE TRUTH HERE, A LITTLE PARTISANSHIP THERE
Review: Molly Ivins is a true left of left liberal. She never met a conservative she liked and worships at the altar of every liberal no matter how insipid. That being said she is probably correct on some of her accusations in this book. George W. has definitely had a free ride all his life, but then so has Al Gore (we should probably refer to him as a "sapling" to maintain the tone in this book). Wealth and politics have always been logical bedfellows and many members of both parties are either independently wealthy or the offspring of well-to-do relatives. Being a black-lunged Texan I can attest that Bush was less than perfect in his environmental record - but then again so was the previous governor, Democrat Ann Richards. In his campaign for the governorship Bush also promised tax relief to many Texans (particularly Houstonians) who suffer from terribly onerous property taxes. That campaign promise translated into a rather small cut which was quickly overcome by a hefty rise in school taxes. In addition Pres. Bush, while being a much more decent man than Clinton, has not shown much skill in handling the economy. In these bad economic times he continues to spend money like a drunken democrat - returning billions to the upper 2% of taxpayers when we have a massive budget deficit and wasting inestimable billions in Afghanistan and Iraq (these oil rich countries should be paying for reconstruction with their own money, not mine). Now he has forked over $10 billion politically correct dollars to "combat" AIDS (a disease of the sexually promiscuous) in mother Africa. He musters the military like a child playing with toy soldiers (will we now go to Liberia?), seemingly unconcerned with the huge cost and the theory that stretching a rubber band too tightly will cause it to break. Ironically his refusal to protect our borders, especially from millions of transient Mexican nationals, must endear him to Molly somewhat. This book was written before Mr. Bush became president. Molly is a partisan leftist but I must award her three stars for more than a few kernels of truth here. Now if she would only lend her considerable ability toward writing a truthful and unbiased book about many equally "shrubby" democrats...
Rating: 
Summary: Gee, not so short now, is it?
Review: I think the title of this review says it all.
Rating:
Summary: A Short but Entertaining Book
Review: A true fan of jr. will really hate this book. The authors, in their smart and snappy way, detail the free ride our President had before he became the President. I tend to like books that agree with me politically and this one does. Not so much in overt preaching, but nice little comments that bring the true effect on people of the policies W pushed for in Texas. At first I thought the tittle of the book was a justification of the small size, but it turned out to be full of details and did a good job of reviewing the subject mater. The real focus of the book is George's time as Governor of Texas. They do cover his pre Governor business deals, but not in the detail you can find in other books. The focus of the book is on his time as Governor, his political views and how he managed the state. The author has been a fan of the Clinton's and what is interesting is that at some points she details W's life experiences with an eye to how the similar experiences in President Clinton's background were covered. The book adds to the rumors or persistent comments that W is not a giant among scholars or is an in-depth policy wonk. It would not be fair to categorize the book as all negative; the authors give W credit for his overall political abilities and the work he did on education. It is also worth noting that unlike many attack books, these authors leave out many of the personal attack one liners that some would look for. Overall it is a fun book to read that gives the reader a good idea of the polices Governor Bush put in place. It also makes sense of the political climate and processes in Texas.
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Summary: This Will Endure
Review: This book is a warning not to elect George W. and of course it's too late, he's already been appointed. But it will remain useful far into the future to be able to read such an accurate prediction of what sort of president this clown was going to be. Just as people in the future will be curious to examine what exactly our knowledge of global warming was while we went about creating it, some will be curious to read what knowledge we had of this walking catastrophe before we nearly elected him. With this book we stand convicted of the most wide-eyed and aware political masochism. Every nasty trait exhibited by Shrub since he planted himself in the White House had already been analyzed by Ivins and Dubose. Each revelation that there was no compassion in the promoter of "compassionate conservatism" had been foreseen. The psychopathic inability to feel doubt, regret, humility, or concern had been documented, chronicled, and lamented before Georgie had left Texas. Never forget it.
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Summary: Molly Ivins -- Bad Analysis or Just Plain Stupid?
Review: Ivins -- Terrible Analysis or Just Plain Stupid
Molly has a folksy down home style. She gets you comfortable with the feeling that she is one of us, and then marches forth with her analysis. Watch out, her numbers are not what they seem and do not back up her words. Example -- Tax Rate -- Molly works through numbers showing that the tax burden on the lowest income groups have the same total tax rate as the highest income groups. She then implies that the two groups are paying the same taxes. However, using her own data, the math actually works out to the richest group paying over 25 times as much per person as the lowest tax group. 25 to 1 is certainly no where the same. Like I said above, I don't know if Molly is a bad analyst, or if she is just plain stupid. At any rate, her conclusions are not borne out by even her facts.
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Summary: Interesting book about Texas Politics
Review: Before anyone buys this book, they should be informed that it is not a biography of George W. Bush in the traditional sense. It gives details of his pre- governor life, but not many. Instead, it is a very thorough account of his years as a failed oil man and governor of Texas. All of Bush's mistakes are chronicled, for the authors make no pretense that theirs is an anti- Bush book. However, moments of greatness, though few and far between, can be glimpsed, which, along with tons of state statistics, add some authenticity to what would generally be called a very biased book. As a whole, it is witty and irreverent, with Molly Ivins' trade mark humor only enhanced by her unique voice on the audio tape. This book is out of date, but worth while for anyone interested in our President's time in Texas.
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Summary: An indication of things to come
Review: Frightening stuff. And we have more of it to look forward to. The authors spare few details about the strange world that is Texas politics. What he did in/for/to Texas, he's already setting up to do in/for/to the nation.
I read this alongside "The Nazis - A Warning From History" (Laurence Rees). The similarities are even more frightening.
Rating:
Summary: Ehhhhh...
Review: I picked this book up sometime around the campaign (for the record, I volunteered for Gore, voted for Gore, and I still would have voted for Gore). I enjoy making fun of Bush as much as the next guy (more, even), but this is just bad writing without a shred of original information. I won't do what many other reviewers have done and say that it was "mean" or anything like that; from Molly Ivans they expected what? Praise? However, is it too much to ask that books of this ilk be done with a touch of writing ability? Don't buy this book, if you are in the core demographic for the book (those who don't like Dubyuh very much) you already know everything in it. This book just wasn't very good.
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Summary: This is important.
Review: Don't be fooled by the whimsical name of Molly Ivan's book. Written during the 2000 presidential campaign, finished before George W. Bush was "elected," Shrub provides some fascinating information about our current President's political and business track record. Ms. Ivan's is clearly not a George W fan, but she is fair in her presentation of his record, including giving credit where credit is due. In this age of hypnotic sound bites that unfortunately determine so many votes, I think it is important that more of us read this book, and other books like it. If we don't do what it takes to be informed, then we cannot expect to be fairly represented in government. -Thom Rutledge
author of Embracing Fear (HarperSanFrancisco)
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