Time columnist Joe Klein is one of the nation's leading Bill Clinton apologists and Barack Obama adorers. So naturally, Klein wasn't going to like George W. Bush's memoir. The review is titled: "A Careless Man: What the Bush Memoir Reveals." Klein concluded the Bush book was readable, and his emotions were real, but:
Bush had failed to spend enough time focusing on al-Qaeda before September 11 "as the outgoing Clinton national-security team had strongly suggested." Klein found the whole Bush presidency was best described as a waste:
As I read on, trapped in the sketchy carelessness of this presidency, I was surprised by how angry I didn't become. For me, at least, weariness has replaced anger. Bush's was an exhausting presidency that will, I suspect, be remembered more for its waste — of time, lives, money, moral standing and economic strength — than for anything else. We have survived nearly a decade now since Sept. 11, and the cataclysmic events of that day have receded, not just in memory but in importance, compared with the global economic changes and Wall Street sociopathy that together challenge America's future pre-eminence. We have not been successfully attacked since, a matter of luck and skill. We do have Bush to thank, in part, for that — but far too much testosterone was spent kicking irrelevant butts and landing, breathless with self-regard, on carrier decks to celebrate victories that were Pyrrhic at best. We struggle to recover from the thoughtless carnage of his tenure.
