The Chameleon President: The Curious Case of George W. Bush

Lynch, Timothy J., Presidential Studies Quarterly

The Chameleon President: The Curious Case of George W. Bush. By Clarke Rountree. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2012. 287 pp.

In this often puzzling book, Clarke Rountree seeks to place President George W. Bush, "one of the most confounding politicians in modern times" (p. ix), into a more accurate and appropriate scholarly frame. A reflexive anti-Bushism has disabled too much of the scholarship about the Texan. The author appears to want to correct this trend and to get beyond simple categories by using them to construct a more integrated and complex picture of the former president. Bush is thus considered against several caricatures (as "Not the Sharpest Tool in the Shed," as "The Callow Frat Boy," as "Born-Again," as "Evil," as "Cheney's Puppet," and so forth--afforded a chapter each) in an effort to …

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Publication information: Article title: The Chameleon President: The Curious Case of George W. Bush. Contributors: Lynch, Timothy J. - Author. Journal title: Presidential Studies Quarterly. Volume: 43. Issue: 1 Publication date: March 2013. Page number: 220+. © 1999 Center for the Study of the Presidency. COPYRIGHT 2013 Gale Group.

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