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Editorial Reviews Amazon.com The political biography, complete with life-altering turning points and a political philosophy for leading the United States into greatness, has become obligatory for those running for president--just one more thing to check off the "to do" list on the way to the Oval Office. A Charge to Keep is George W. Bush's offering: a light and breezy book mixing personal and political remembrances that proves heavy on chatty anecdotes and light on policy prescriptions. If you read the last chapter you'll sort of learn where George W. stands on most things, but still not really discern how he would actually run the country. There are no revelations, either personal or political: Bush's wild side and youthful indiscretions, like stealing a Christmas wreath from a New Haven hotel for his Yale fraternity, are touched on lightly when he discusses them at all. A Charge to Keep is so upbeat and positive, in describing the Houston woman to whom he was engaged in college and from whom he "gradually drifted apart," Bush says simply: "I still think the world of her, and our parting was friendly. We were very young, we lived in different places, and we gradually developed different lives." George W. has been labeled a lightweight by some; A Charge to Keep will do nothing to dispel that notion. It features lots of Bush family memories and numerous mentions of George W.'s famous parents, including letters from his president father. George W. has followed closely in his father's footsteps, attending the same prep school and college. He even belonged to the same secret society at Yale, Skull and Bones. From college it was on to flight school and the Texas Air National Guard, Harvard Business School, and then (again, like his father) the Texas oil business and politics. George W. seems mostly in sync with his father on policy issues as well. "A thousand points of light" is transformed slightly to become "compassionate conservative," which pops up in the final chapter more than 10 times. Readers will come away knowing many of the experiences and events that have helped shaped George W., but his future is still an open book. --Linda Killian
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you? ...a puzzling exercise. It offers little more than his standard stump speech does to convey what a Bush presidency might be like.
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you? Customer Reviews of the Day (what's this?) Write an online review and share your thoughts with other shoppers! 10 of 19 people found the
following review helpful: The self-absorption, the lack of appreciation for the wider community, the absence of serious personal reflection -- all of these failings run the depth and breadth of the book, unapologetically. It's also difficult to imagine that a person with designs on the nation's highest office would have allowed such an embarrassingly juvenile and unexamined treatise to make it into the public consciousness willingly. One would imagine all efforts would have been mounted to prevent awareness of the book, and the political damage such a literary non-effort would cause. This, however, presumes that the outcome of political contests is a matter of uncertainty -- and that an ill-considered book might have a negative impact -- a presumption being challenged by campaign finance issues and other recent events. Ultimately, "A Charge to Keep" pales in comparison to other political
autobiographies of the modern era. I fact, it does not belong in that
company at all, but would be more suited to casual autobiographical
sketches.
9 of 12 people found the
following review helpful: This book (I hate to give it so noble a term) is a slick piece of marketing material, nothing more. It's designed to sell the same insipid and irritatingly unbelievable 'compassionate conservatism' nonsense Bush Jr. (let's all face it, people - the removal of Herbert does not a different name make) hawked from coast to coast throughout 2000. I found it most enlightening that while zooming around the country, talking about how compassionate he is and sucking up every dime that wasn't nailed down, he couldn't take one day off and go to Fort Worth last spring, after a tornado ravaged its way through downtown, leaving a swath of destruction which is still in abundant evidence. If you want to put on some rose-colored glasses and read a biography
which bears a tangential relationship to the real story, by all means pick
up this book and memorize it. If you're interested in the truth, look
elsewhere.  All Customer ReviewsAvg. Customer Rating:  Write an online review and share your thoughts with other shoppers! 9 of 12 people found the
following review helpful:
2 of 7 people found the
following review helpful:
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Embarrassingly Elementary, January 28, 2001 
Hear him
out!, March 1, 2001 