Abstract

Paul O'Neill, Truth-Teller

The author comments on the portrayal of U.S. president George W. Bush in the book "The Price of Loyalty" by Ron Suskind, which presents former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's account of his experiences in the Bush White House. Up close, Bush is smaller than life, an oddly uninteresting person. Yet he possesses all of the presidency's dreadful powers and cheerfully authorizes their use. The publicity apparatus successfully created a guy who is Mr. Macho Fighter Pilot. Behind the closed door, he submits complacently to the close supervision of others--Cheney, Rice, Rove et al. O'Neill is one of them (or was until they booted him as Treasury Secretary). He's a meticulous man, strong-willed and experienced in government and corporate life, a conservative Republican with a talent for systems analysis. Yet he comes across as the innocent everyman, honest but slightly goofy in his naïveté, repeatedly shocked by the cynicism and sloppiness, angered by the gross deceptions and flaky decisions. O'Neill is believable because his own story portrays him as goat, not hero. He offended the concept of the modern presidency, in which propaganda is policy and everyone in the room understands what O'Neill could never grasp--that propaganda comes before all else.