Is Our Children Learning?: The Case Against George W. Bush

by Paul Begala

Book Overview

He was a poor student who somehow got into the finest schools. He was a National Guardsman who somehow missed a year of service. He was a failed businessman who somehow was made rich. He was a minority investor who somehow was made managing partner of the Texas Rangers. He was a defeated politician who somehow was made governor. You can hardly blame him for expecting to inherit the White House. "Is Our Children Learning?" examines the public life...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743214781
• ISBN13: 9780743214780
• Release Date: September 2000
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.6" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

An Excellent Read

If you think George W Bush is unqualified to be president, after you read this book you'll be praying for the next election. Begala does a great job at exposing Bush for exactly what he is-a rich kid who somehow made it into the white house. Begala offers at least one Bushism at the start of every chapter; he also utilizes his great sense of sarcasm and humor to keep the reader from putting the book down. What also makes this book strong is that Begala gives overviews on how Bush handles many different topics such as education, the environment, and social security. Begala does a great job at simplifying things for the reader and he also excels at citing his work well to give it legitimacy. It is greatly disturbing to know that the president is against lowering classroom sizes, he skipped a year in the national guard, and he thinks there's no such thing as a hate crime! We need more authors like Begala to show things as they are and also to infuse the books with a little humor too.

Perfect Example of: "I TOLD YOU SO!"

... If more people had read this book and known all this stuff BEFORE the presidential election in November of 2000, Resident-Select Shrub would not be living in the White House today. I'm sure it is no warm consolation to Paul Begala to be able to say, "I told you so." Nevertheless, all is not in vain. What is in this book will come in real handy for the UPCOMING presidential election of 2004.... About then presidential candidate, George W. Bush, Paul Begala writes, on page 40: "George W. Bush's economic plan is a return to the trickle-down days of the 1980s. He wants to cut taxes for the rich, gut the social safety net, turn more and more power over to giant corporations, and limit the rights of working people. ... You're reading this, and you're thinking: Didn't we try this before? And didn't all that trickle down result in a few rich folks and corporations getting the gold mine while the rest of us got the shaft? Didn't those Reagan-Bush economic policies run up the debt, cripple our competitiveness, and drive us into a recession?"... About then vice-presidential candidate, Dick Cheney, he writes, on page 133: "And in case you ladies thought Dick was on your side, he also voted against the Equal Rights Amendment. Apparently full equality for women was an idea whose time had no yet come for Mr. Cheney. In his defense, Cheney says he opposed the ERA because he feared it would require that women be drafted. Hey, Dick: we haven't even drafted any men for twenty-five years. But at least he's consistent: Cheney was so opposed to the draft during the Vietnam War that he got several deferments. He never spent a day in uniform himself, but he was eager to ship my cousin Dennis (a Marine sniper) off to Kuwait to do Cheney's fighting for him."... Ah, you've got to hand it to Paul Begala, he knows how to maintain his sense of humor in the heat of battle. Indeed, for battle it is - political battle - over the future direction of our country. Read this book ( as well as his newer IT'S STILL THE ECONOMY, STUPID ), and you will be very well informed about "the enemy" before going into battle. I will never forget what my friend, Danny ( a US Marine who fought at Kae San in Vietnam ), once said to me about his political enemies in union politics. He said: "I love my enemies. I really do. It's EASY to love your enemies and be a Christian. WHY? ... Because they're SO STUPID, they make you look good!" ... Danny was right - and Paul Begala is right. Read this book, love your enemies, and think victoriously about the future presidential election! ... YOWZA! - The Aeolian Kid

Bush exposed

It was so refreshing to see all of George W. Bush's inadequacies and the reasons why he is so dreadfully wrong for the presidency laid out. During the entire election it seemed like no one had the courage to expose these facts, and when they did make headlines the story died down suspiciously quickly. Here at last the full story comes out, and is extensively backed up with footnotes -- letting you know that what you are reading hasn't been twisted or run through the rumor mill. Paul Begala presents the information with a wit that keeps you laughing despite the horrors of W's record. The writing is also very clear and concise, so that even I, someone not very knowledgable of politics, was able to understand each and every section. I just wish that I had discovered this book earlier -- it would have been a godsend in convincing some family members of mine just how awful Bush really is.

Exposing the fraud

Paul Begala is partisan and freely admits it, but he succinctly exposes George Bush Jr. for the lightweight he is.Begala paints a portrait of Junior as a study in contradictions. A lousy student who was accepted to an Ivy League university ... a failed businessman who enjoyed a successful career ... the beneficiary of millions of dollars in government hand-outs who doesn't believe in government assistance. We see Bush Jr. for what he is -- a privileged rich boy whose family name has allowed him to coast through life and succeed in spite of himself.This book should scare the hell out of Americans as we face the prospect of Bush Jr. as the leader of the free world for the next four years. It would destroy my faith in the American voter altogether, were it not for the fact that more of us voted for the other candidate. An excellent book, filled with irrefutable facts.

BUSH'S CHARACTER TAKES A BEATING

... With the publication of this immensely readable, witty, compact yet amply-documented book, Begala shows why we should all tremble if Bush is elected to the White House.I'm more amazed than ever that Bush has dared to make "character" an issue in his campaign. As Begala's book attests, the red thread running through Bush's life and record is gross irresponsibility born of privilege. I already knew, for example, that Bush evaded the draft and used his father's influence to jump the waiting list for the national guard. But I was shocked to learn that Bush never showed up during the whole year that he was ordered to report to the Alabama National Guard. What's more, Bush told a press conference last June that he "didn't remember" what he did that year in Alabama. Really? The WHOLE year? (Why should that year be hazier than the two years after graduation he spent, in his words, "drinking and carousing and fumbling around")? Begala's discussion of Bush's business ventures is short but snappy. We learn about Bush's first foray, in which he raised, and promptly lost, millions of dollars invested by his father's friends-- and then sold this disaster dubbed "El Busto", by then worth just $38,000, to another of Poppy's friends for $1 million. Even more astonishing, we learn that Bush engaged in but was never prosecuted or even reproached for INSIDER TRADING in 1990 while a director of Harken Energy. He didn't even comply with the law requiring him to report the sale until eight months after the deadline. (Unfortunately the press is too busy dissecting "important issues" like open mikes and verbal gaffes to investigate commercial hanky panky).As head of the Texas Rangers, Bush persuaded the citizens of Arlington to raise their taxes to pay for a new stadium, while the Rangers retained all the profits once it opened. Well, the people's loss was Bush's gain. For some strange reason, Bush's partners allowed him to increase his share of his holdings from 2 percent to 12 percent without Bush investing more of his own money. So, while citizens got the shaft, Bush reaped a windfall profit of over $14 million principally on shares he never bought. For doing what? For trading Sammy Sosa? Worse than that, Bush's meager record of PUBLIC service also comes across more like public plunder.His tax plan would give the richest 1% NEARLY HALF of all tax cuts, while "most average working families would get about 60 cents per day." As Begala, citing UPI, notes, he's squandered Texas's budget surplus: "the first time in nine years that Texas has suffered a budget pinch." Thanks to Bush, say 44 environmental groups in Texas, Houston has the dirtiest air in America, causing hundreds of premature deaths each year. The problem is so bad that asthma rates among Houston's inner-city children have doubled in only two years! Small wonder too, because as Begala points out, Bush's idea of trusting people with responsibility is trusting pro-industry, anti-regulation people to occupy E