BloomoonBlog.com

clipped from www.npr.org Bob Woodward Details A White House Divided Listen Now add to playlist Bob Woodward is the author of The War Within. Fresh Air from WHYY, September 9, 2008 � The surge in Iraq is one of the issues that divided the presidential candidates when it was proposed, but Bob Woodward’s new book, The War Within, reveals that it also divided the Bush administration and the military. According to Woodward, a secret study done for the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2006 indicated that the war effort was going poorly — a fact that the president staunchly refused to acknowledge in public, in part because it was an election year. “In key moments, the president was not there at the meetings where [administration members] were confronting the reality that they had a strategy that was not working.” Bob Woodward

Ok, so I’m a bit behind in my podcast listening (this is from early September).  But this interview was great–the best thing about Fresh Air is that once you’ve heard the in-depth interview, you don’t have to read the book! I can’t post the podcast itself here, but you can go to the site above and listen to it there, or probably download it if you want.

Some people think that becuase Bob Woodward is the Woodward of Woodward and Bernstein (Watergate), he’s some leftist looney.  However, he has incredible access to the White House, and wrote at least two (I read 2) very good books on the Clinton Administration that were not exactly favorable.  The best thing is that he really gets you inside so you feel like you are seeing the people and making your own judgements about how they are behaving.  He writes with a detailed journalism style that is easy to follow and well-paced.  So I assume this book is as good as previous ones.  The interview is great–he’s articulate without being academic or pompous.  So listen to it if you’re interested, or even just read the full entry on the Fresh Air site.