Rating: 
Summary: An Extraordinary Work
Review: Mr. Suskind has given a serious peek behind the scenes in the Bush White House through the eyes of an extraordinary man, Paul O'Neill. It is not a pretty sight. We find out they began planning the War in Iraq days after taking office. And that they've squandered the budget surplus on tax breaks that have not stimulated the economy (against the advice of their leading economists). The most disturbing insight has to do with President Bush. The picture that is painted is one in which he has little if any insight into the world and the issues around him. He has surrounded himself with idealogues. Mr. O'Neill is an amazing man with an unbelievably gifted mind who is not afraid to tell the truth. Every American should read this book before they cast their ballot next November. It may be THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOK OF THE YEAR.
Rating:
Summary: How Bush (and his gang) makes decisions
Review: This book was written with the notes, papers, and (too much, in my view) retrospective comment of Tom O’Neill, Bush’s first Secretary of Treasury. It provides a view into decision process within the Bush Whitehouse. The picture painted is that there are two and only two principles: • Do what “the base” wants, i.e., what is politically expedient. “The base” in this context means the very rich and large corporations. • Right wing political ideology. O’Neill, although a conservative businessman who is also rich, believes in pragmatism, evidence, argument and analysis when making decisions. He ran up against the small group of Whitehouse insiders who make all the decisions on political and ideological grounds. These include Carl, Hughes, Rove and especially the sinister, Machiavellian Vice President Dick Cheney. A few examples: • Iraq Invasion. Pure ideology: reshape the Middle East to the advantage of American corporations and secure control of the oil. The option of attacking Iraq was first raised in the first NSC meeting by Rumsfeld and Wolfewitz. They had to wait until 911 provided the confusion that allowed them to sell the WMD threat idea to the American people, but it worked. • Reducing greenhouse gases. The base wanted no control. O’Neill and EPA director, Whitman, were pushing limits on CO2 emissions in the US and qualified support of Kyoto.
• Tax cuts. This was a combo deal since the tax cuts were for the rich, the base, and tax cutting to the Reaganite neocons is always good and next to godliness. Before the surplus disappeared, O’Neill and his old friend Greenspan were pushing a scheme of tax cuts with “triggers” that reduced the tax cuts if the surpluses disappeared, which under Bush they did in one year. O’Neill and Greenspan were peremptorily trumped without explanation by the political advantage to be gained by the massive give away to the rich. The list of examples is long, including the evisceration of the Clean Air Act, Patriot Act, clean water for Africans, corporate governance reform (another Greenspan/O’Neil failure), and Social Security reform, but the decision process was always the same: pander to the constituency, the rich, and political ideology. Oh, there was one case where political ideology was bested by the base’s interests: steel tariffs.
Rating: 
Summary: A disaster
Review: A disaster!!!! Suskind unfortunately yields to the temptation of writing a story rather than reporting a story. One of the worst political books I have ever read and should be titled, "Why I am pissed off that I was fired". Unfortunately not only does ONeill come off as a bitter bitter man (it is amusing that Mr Principle spends 4 years working for a boss he has no respect for till he is fired!) but Suskind comes off as trying to sell books rather than report earnestly.
Rating:
Summary: Among the Best
Review: This is probably the best writing I have seen on the Bush 2 administration. O'Neill is a republican after all, albeit not a neocon. His obsesrvations on the triumph of ideology, belief over fact, and having the answers rather than "negotiating with myself" as Bush refuses to do are insights that one rarely has at least until an administration is several years out of office. In my view, O'Neill has done a much greater service to the nation by providing the materials for this book to Suskind than his service in office.
Rating:
Summary: Read this before the next election
Review: This is an important book. What a gift to have the views of a straight shooter like O'Neil delivered in such a timely fashion. This is an indispensable document of the times in which we live. You can argue all you want about policy. I had no major problems with the first Bush administration or the Clinton administration. I'll cut a president from any party some slack if they are pursuing a thoughtful policy. But what Paul O'Neil describes in this book is extraordinary. And to Christine Todd Whitman I say "come home, New Jersey needs you again."
Rating: 
Summary: enlightening
Review: I must admit that I am only half way through the book, I have not finished it yet. Having said that I think that we have an example of a republican CEO(for a change) telling truth to power. It is obvious, if O'Neill is to believed that Bush and his co-horts are not interested in the facts they just want their subordinates to read from a script. O'Neill was brought in to be an actor, not a director. In any event, although this is not always an entertaining book, it is definitely informative.
Rating:
Summary: A mix of courage and truth
Review: I have read this book and I would like to applaud both Ron Suskind and Paul O'Neill for this effort. This book was the tipping point to finally shed some bright light on the truth of the Bush faux presidency. There is one thing that niggles however. O'Neill was able to amass sixty million dollars in wealth when our country had good governance and excellent relations with most countries in the world. He then got the remarkable and fine idea while on his trip to Africa with Bono to push for the Bush administration to support a project in Ghana to provide clean water to all citizens at a cost of only 25 million dollars. Of course Bush and his ideologue followers would not go along with that. But why doesn't O'Neill put up the 25 million himself? That is less than half his fortune. What is he going to do with all that money? His four children don't need that much to wreck their lives with entitlement and excess. Other than this my respect for Mr. O'Neill has been very much strengthened through reading his story.
Rating:
Summary: Philosophy and Power
Review: This book is a very interesting inside account of the second Bush Administration. However, it also holds a deeper interest as a contemporary illustration of the age-old tension between philosophy and power. The overall theme of the book is loyalty, specifically the difference between the narrowly political definition of loyalty as loyalty to persons and the philosophical definition of loyalty as loyalty to inquiry (pages 325-26). O'Neill distinguishes between ideology, which is based on non-thinking feelings, and philosophy, "which is always a work in progress, [and] is influenced by facts" (page 292). O'Neill is concerned about process--an honest evaluation of competing views with reference to evidence--as distinguished from preconceived opinions. The entire book is an elaboration of these themes. Although the subject is not new (the question of the relationship between philosophy and power was addressed in depth by such ancient philosophers as Plato and Confucius), this contemporary update is, to say the least, fascinating. One does not have to agree with every one of O'Neill's conclusions to appreciate his attempts to inject reason into an atmosphere in which reason was anathema to many of the influential players. One of the most surprising revelations in the book, based on O'Neill's experiences in previous administrations, is that President Nixon, for all his faults, was actually an analytical thinker, as was President Ford. When O'Neill attempted to initiate similar analytical processes into the administration of the second Bush, he found himself beating his head against a wall.
Rating:
Summary: Good read but cut Bush some slack
Review: Hey it's a decent book, not an out right Bush bash like I thought it would be. Good points are made; valid critisms are not over played. My problem is not with the book, but what people make it to be: an attack on Bush. Yeah after reading this book you will be left with the sense that Bush Jr. is not the brightest light in the sky. Hey so what, we knew that already. He's a decent guy, and we could be way worse off. If it wasn't for 9-11 he would have been a good President. He just got in over his head. Back off and let the man do his job. It's looking like he's not gonna get a second term, so give him some peace for the rest of it.
Rating:
Summary: Confirmed my suspicions...
Review: F. Scott Fitzgerald said, "the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function". This book confirmed that Bush is unable to do this. Bush repeatedly says he refuses to "negotiate with himself" meaning there's just not enough room upstairs for more than one idea at a time. And as the book describes his discovery of the rest of the world after taking office it really must have been getting crowded up there. But what can you expect, he's a proud Texan. O'Neill, ultra-smart as he claims to be, wasn't able to deal with Bush, just like Gore. Having been the CEO of Alcoa O'Neill seemed pretty naïve. And so after my initial anger at Bush faded away I kind of felt sorry him. Why? The book clearly showed that he's in way over his head and is being manipulated by the neocons. It's sad that his legacy will be that of one of the most damaging presidents in our history. At times this book is dry and full of financial concepts not well explained. But it is a very relevant book for our times and should be read. After 9/11 people called Bush a hero, but as Fitzgerald also said, "Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy".
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