'The Decider' writing book about his major decisions
Last Updated: Wednesday, March 18, 2009 | 11:42 PM ET
The Associated Press
George W. Bush, who once famously called himself "The Decider," is writing a book about decisions.
"I want people to understand the environment in which I was making decisions," the former U.S. president said during a brief telephone interview Wednesday with The Associated Press from his office in Dallas.
"I want people to get a sense of how decisions were made, and I want people to understand the options that were placed before me."
Bush's book, tentatively (not decisively) called Decision Points, is scheduled for a 2010 release by Crown, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group. It is unusual in a couple of ways.
Both George W. Bush and his wife Laura, seen here in 2005, have publishing deals.
(Associated Press)
Instead of telling his life story, Bush will concentrate on about a dozen personal and presidential choices, from giving up drinking to picking Dick Cheney as his vice president to sending troops to Iraq.
He will also write about his relationship with family members, including his father, another former president, his religious faith and his highly criticized response to Hurricane Katrina.
Bush and his representative, Washington lawyer Robert Barnett, negotiated for world rights only with Crown Publishing, where authors include President Barack Obama and Bush's former secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice.
Barnett used a similar strategy in working out deals with publisher Alfred A. Knopf for another former president, Bill Clinton.
"Proceeding in this way gets the project going promptly, avoids the time-consuming process of multiple meetings and multiple negotiations, and preserves confidentiality for all concerned," Barnett said.
Financial details were not disclosed, although publishers have openly doubted that Bush would receive the $15 million US Clinton got for his memoir, My Life.
Crown Publishing is a division of Random House Inc. and the deal was handled by Random House executive vice-president and publisher at large Stephen Rubin.
No interest in writing comprehensive memoir
The structure of Bush's current book is not unlike his A Charge to Keep, published by William Morrow in 1999 as the then-Texas governor was preparing to run for president. In the foreword to Charge, Bush noted that he had no interest in a comprehensive, chronological memoir.
"That would be far too boring," he wrote. "The book chronicles some of the events that have shaped my life and some of my major decisions and actions as governor of Texas."
Bush said Wednesday that he was not "comfortable with the first book, only because it seemed rushed," and that his current memoir would have "a lot more depth," thanks to his years as president.
' I want to recreate what it was like, for example, right after 9/11, and have people understand the emotions I felt.—George W. Bush
Although he didn't keep a diary while in the White House — he "jotted" down the occasional note — he said he began Decision Points just two days after leaving the White House and had written "maybe" 30,000 words so far.
Bush is working with research assistants and a former White House speechwriter, Chris Michel.
Once known for his reluctance to acknowledge mistakes, Bush said the book would include self-criticism, "Absolutely, yes," but cautioned that "hindsight is very easy" and that he would make sure readers could view events as he saw them.
"I want to recreate what it was like, for example, right after 9/11," he said, "and have people understand the emotions I felt and what others around me felt at the time."
Obama's books unread
Asked whether he might write about the ouster of his first defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, or about his decision not to pardon Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby — choices both openly disputed by Cheney — Bush said he didn't know.
Libby was convicted of perjury and obstructing justice in the investigation of the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity. Bush commuted Libby's sentence and saved him from serving time in prison, but Libby remains a convicted felon.
Bush said he has read other presidential memoirs, including Ulysses S. Grants's highly praised autobiography, a book he enjoyed in part because it was "anecdotal." He said he had "skimmed" Clinton's memoir and had yet to read either of Obama's books, Dreams From My Father and The Audacity of Hope.
Virtually all the top officials in the Bush administration, from Rice to political strategist Karl Rove, have either completed books or are in the midst of writing them. Cheney has said he plans a memoir, and former first lady Laura Bush has a deal with Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.
Her book, like her husband's, is scheduled for 2010. Barnett, who represents both Bushes, said Laura Bush's book would come out first.
