George W authors book about George H.W. Bush

By Lynn R. Mitchell

They are commonly known as 43 and 41, father and son, George W and George H.W. Bush. The son’s announcement this week that he had written a book about his father, to be published on November 11, 2014, caught many off guard because it had been a closely-held secret (see The secret George W. Bush book project by David Nather at Politico):

News of the book came as a surprise to the political world, even among people who follow the Bush saga closely. Matt Schlapp, George W. Bush’s former political director and now the chairman of the American Conservative Union, said he had “no inkling” of the project — no talking points to help promote it, or even a heads up.

“The first I heard of it was on the news,” said Steve Munisteri, the chairman of the Texas Republican Party, who recalls meeting George W. Bush several times when Bush was an operative on his father’s presidential campaign in 1988.

2012: ‘George W. Bush not endorsing in presidential primary is no mystery’

By Lynn R. Mitchell
[A look back at the 2012 presidential election. Originally published April 13, 2012, at Bearing Drift.]

The media are beside themselves trying to figure out why former President George W. Bush has not endorsed in the current Republican presidential contest. Everywhere you look, there’s some variation of the question wondering why he isn’t front and center. One example of the ink spent on the story is this one from Politico that asks, “Where is George W. Bush?” and accuses him of being on a “self-imposed exile” from the current political season.