Book Review: Peril

 

This is a book that is co-written by journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. It is partly a follow-up to Woodward's two other books chronicling the 2017-2021 presidential administration, but mostly a book about the 2020 election, detailing Joe Biden's decision to run, his resurrection during the Democratic primary, how he dealt with the transition, and how he dealt with the first 100 days of his administration, with a large focus on the dealing needed to get the rescue plan passed. The book shifts between detailing what was going on with the Biden camp and with the former administration, and provides a lot of good insight into the shitstorm that t***p and his band of dipshits caused both before and after the January 6th riot, and just how pissed off everyone, including the military and the spineless Republicans like McCarthy and McConnell, were at t***p in private while still either refusing to truly condemn him (like Bitch McConnell) or licking his balls at Mara Largo (like Qevin McCarthy and Lindsay Graham). It really underscores how little respect anyone had for t***p, including some of the people in his inner circle, and that everyone, even the ball lickers, were telling t***p that he lost the election. 

For me, the best part of the book is the last third in which the authors really dispense with talking about t***p (mostly) and focuses on what had to be done to get the 1.9 trillion dollar rescue plan passed, particularly how to get Joe Manchin to go along with it since the Democrats could not afford to lose any votes in the 50/50 senate, as well as making decisions like whether to honor the deal between the former administration and the Taliban to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan. It was interesting to get insight into how Biden learned from his time as Vice President, and the mistakes that the Obama administration made in trying to deal with Republicans who were never going to deal in good faith with him, and Biden basically telling Republicans something along the lines of "I will listen to you, but this is what we are going to do whether you join us or not". This is definitely a must-read if you are into politics and/or current events.

Book Review: Rage

 

This is the second book written by famed journalist Bob Woodward about the 2017-2021 US presidential administration. Woodward covers events from throughout the administration but has a heavy focus on the response to Covid-19 and the relationships between the president and key members of his administration.

Specifically, Woodward talks about the relationship between the orange genital wart and members of the cabinet like Mattis, Tillerson, and Dan Coats (who was the Director of National Intelligence), and how all of their relationships soured with dipshit until they were fired or resigned. Woodward also discusses at length the love-note relationship between it and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Then, towards the end, Woodward goes on to discuss the disastrous Covid response that actually started out promising then went off the rails as t***p became more worried about getting reelected than he was about listening to medical experts. The big deal about this book as opposed to Woodward's first book is that t***p agreed to be interviewed, and taped, so Woodward uses t***p's own words throughout the book. 

The big takeaways from the book for me are, first, just how big a dipshit t***p really is, and two how much of an unjustified overinflated ego he has. For example, thinking he knows everything about science and technology just because his uncle taught electrical engineering at MIT when it is clear if you put any kind of physics or engineering problem in front of t***p and told him to work it out, his brain would explode. Secondly, just how stupid everyone around him found him to be and how frustrating it was to deal with his stream of consciousness jumping from topic to topic while still managing to say (or know) anything of substance. That is really borne out when Woodward reprints the exact questions he asked and exact quotes in response from t***p. 

Woodward does admit that many people he interviewed for the book only agreed to talk to him anonymously, but he also has about 400 endnotes that point to publically available sources for a lot of the material. Woodward is very critical of t***p and is clearly not a fan. But, he does give t***p credit for some things, such as his initial response to Covid, like restricting travel from China and Europe and then instituting the initial lockdowns. Unlike a lot of the journalists who have written books about t***p, Woodward does give his overall impressions and opinions of t**p and does not just stick to reciting facts and quoting sources. Woodward does not go as far as someone like Michael Wolff and actually call t***p batshit crazy, but you can tell that seems to be his impression of t***p. I do think Woodward can be fairly criticized for keeping what t***p truly knew about Covid versus what he was saying in public under wraps until his book came out. 

There is not a ton of new information in the book, especially if you are one who kept up with the news about that administration from reputable news sources. But, Woodward did manage to uncover details that flesh out the events he discusses in the book that I had not heard before. So, I do think that it is worth reading and definitely recommend it.