Strategery: How George W. Bush Is Defeating Terrorists, Outwitting Democrats, and Confounding the Mainstream Media.

by Raymond L. Fischer

BY BILL SAMMON REGNERY PUBLISHING, INC. 2006, 336 PAGES, $27.95

Third in a series of New York Times best sellers chronicling George W. Bush's presidency, Strategery follows Fighting Back, examining changes in the presidency after 9/11, and Misunderestimated, analyzing the launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Strategery begins with John Kerry's candidacy in March 2004 and continues through the hard-fought election and the following 14 months. As senior White House correspondent for the Washington Times, as well as a political analyst for Fox News Channel, Sammon had "unprecedented access" to Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and other senior White House officials; he interviewed the President "more times than any other journalist."

The title of the book comes from a "Saturday Night Live" George Bush-AI Gore debate skit during which Chris Parnell (moderator) asks Will Ferrell (Bush) to sum up the best argument for the Bush candidacy. With exaggerated cockiness, Ferrell replies, "Strategery" (pronounced struh-TEE-jer-ee). The Administration enjoyed the humor, and Rove began to term his weekly assembly of top strategists "strategery" meetings. However, the title might very well have been, How the Liberal Mainstream Media Is Out to Get Bush.

Defeating Terrorists, Outwitting Democrats, and Confounding the Mainstream Media correctly previews the subject content. Sammon has exposed the inconsistencies and inaccuracies of liberal bias intended to change the momentum of the 2004 election and denigrate the Bush Administration. He points out that the Democrats and the mainstream media never stopped complaining about Iraq while downplaying that same country's political, economic, and military accomplishments. During his third prime-time press conference on April 13, 2004, Bush explained how the U.S. was defeating terrorists--for the first time the world was seeing a concerted response to the ideology of terror, a series of powerful, effective blows. "We will stay on the offense until we bring people to justice" The media "pilloried" the President's Iraqi policy, yet never offered a clear alternative.

Sammon explains strategies Republicans use to confound Democrats and deftly defuses liberal-slanted mainstream media stories. The author relates Bush's philosophy about campaigning, the war, and life in general, and he includes from Rove and Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman several insightful quotes defining the "real" George Bush. Sammon describes the Bush haters, a new political phenomenon, as "a virulent strain of acid partisanship," led by National People's Action, a radical group espousing guerrilla tactics "to achieve its left-wing goals."

Bush dislikes press conferences because most reporters concentrate on making themselves look clever as they try to make him look foolish; he especially dislikes reporters who obviously attempt to set up a "gotcha" story. Sammon points out that, on May 23, 2005, the Pew Research Center released a poll showing "self-identified liberals" in the national press outnumbered conservatives by five to one. The press also promoted Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, which includes "egregious misrepresentations" the mainstream media rationalized as "courageous expressions of free speech." Republicans called Moore's film "crockumentary." At the same time, the press generally ignored "What We Have Accomplished," a film Chris Wallace (Fox News) produced as a tribute to the troops.

The book explores the scandal about Sandy Berger's "accidentally" removing classified documents from the National Archives when he served as Pres. Bill Clinton's National Security advisor. When the facts proved Berger guilty, former Clinton aide and current TV political analyst George Stephanopoulos suggested that Attorney General John Ashcroft was responsible for "leaking" the story. Sammon exposes the media's attempt to use a "stink bomb" at the very end of both Bush campaigns. The weekend prior to the 2000 election, the media released the story that, in 1976, Bush had been arrested for DWI, and just 36 hours before the polls opened at the end of his second campaign, the media accused the Administration of failing to safeguard a cache of Iraqi weapons missing for more than 18 months. When an Osama bin Laden videotape overshadowed the impact of the weapons story, Walter Cronkite suggested on CNN's "Larry King Live" that "Rove probably set up bin Laden to do the tape."

Sammon disproves the Newsweek article about flushing a Koran down a toilet; even after the story proved false, author Michael Isikoff asserted, "It is important to remember that there was absolutely no lapse in journalistic standards." Some journalists even suggested the story was "a grand conspiracy by the diabolical Bush Administration" to leak false information to make Newsweek look bad.

Sammon extensively analyzes the attempt by CBS producer Mary Mapes to locate damaging information about Bush's military records in order to "change the momentum of the election." Mapes, who long had sought the "missing file," disregarded the advice of experts who refused to authenticate the papers given to her by Bill Burkett, a dubious character who changed his story several times and who had to be bribed to turn over "the missing papers from the file." When the documents ultimately proved to be fakes, Dan Rather suggested on "60 Minutes" that the controversy concerning the authenticity of the documents "had been stirred up by what Hillary Clinton once called a vast rightwing conspiracy" He went on to suggest, without any proof, that even though the documents might be fake, the information was true--flake but true," a new low for journalistic standards.

Another interesting section of the book concerns the "Swifties," a group of nearly 200 Vietnam vets, 18 of whom, in denouncing Kerry at a press conference in Washington, explained why Kerry did not deserve his medals and condemned him for branding his fellow Vietnam vets as war criminals. The media attended, but "refused to actually cover" the press conference. "Utterly ignored" by the press, the vets privately financed a film that "told the truth" about Kerry's medals and his actions after the war. Journalists denounced the film in the strongest possible terms; Mike Barnicle of MSNBC even called it "political pornography." Although the "Swifties" were not associated with the Republican Party, the media lambasted the Republicans for "making" the film.

Sammon explains Bush's views concerning terrorists and methods employed to defuse untrue stories in the mainstream media. As Sammon details the liberal and conservative sides of a story, he reveals the extent to which politics ranks as a "bloodsport." Liberal reviewers either will ignore or downplay the importance of this book. Nevertheless, Strategery is an eye-opening look at political manipulation and media bias.

Reviewed by

RAYMOND L. FISCHER

Mass Media Editor

Questia Media America, Inc. www.questia.com

Publication Information: Article Title: Strategery: How George W. Bush Is Defeating Terrorists, Outwitting Democrats, and Confounding the Mainstream Media. Contributors: Raymond L. Fischer - author. Magazine Title: USA Today. Volume: 135. Issue: 2740. Publication Date: January 2007. Page Number: 81. COPYRIGHT 2007 Society for the Advancement of Education; COPYRIGHT 2007 Gale Group