Laura Bush’s memoir gets early exposure
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Former First Lady Laura Bush’s memoir, “Spoken From the Heart,” made it into the hands of Politico and the New York Times a little earlier than expected.
Our politics blog, Top of the Ticket, is pulled to the dramatic matters of life and death. At 17, Laura Bush ran a stop sign on a dark road and killed the driver of the car she hit. She recounts the event, and her subsequent crisis of faith, in the book. Later, while in Germany for the 2007 G-8 summit, Bush wonders if she and others in the American presidential party have been poisoned.
Another passage that early reviews have focused on details a 2005 trip the first lady took to Egypt. She was prepped on social issues, she writes, but not aware the country was on the cusp of an election until her plane touched down; she had to fumble her way through questions.
At home, social issues may be equally tricky. Her recollection of how gay marriage was used as a wedge issue in the 2004 election, and by whom, has come under scrutiny. “When it comes to Mary Cheney, gay marriage and the 2004 election, maybe [Laura Bush] should check with Rove, who acknowledges in his own memoir that he used the issue to effect,” Top of the Ticket writes.
But there are some quieter moments. Politico has pulled a more homey quote from Laura Bush, from early in her husband’s tenure:
On December 18 [2002], ABC broadcast Barbara Walters’s annual special on the ten most fascinating people of the year. Barbara had selected me as 2002’s most fascinating person, calling me a “beacon of calm in the center of the storm.” It was flattering, but even as it aired, I said to George with a smile, “Bushie, what goes up must come down.”
Bushie?
Our review will come in due time.
-- Carolyn Kellogg
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