As time passes, and the distance between George W. Bush’s presidency and the present grows, we can gauge his biggest decisions and his fortitude with greater circumspection. And the deeper understanding that comes through time helps us see that many of the decisions that elicited the most outrage while he was in office have proven, with time, to be some of his best.
Moreover, from the perspective of the highly secularized administration occupying the presidency today, it’s surreal to reflect on how important President Bush’s faith was to him and to those around him. As well as how focused and tenacious that faith made him once the role of “war president” was thrust on his shoulders one cloudless September day.
All these things and more were brought to the forefront of my mind as I recently read a book by my friend Timothy S. Goeglein, titled “The Man in the Middle: An Insider Account of Faith and Politics in the George W. Bush Era” (released September 15, 2011). Because Tim served as deputy director of the White House Office of Public Liaison in the Bush administration for nearly eight years, he saw the president from an angle untainted by the mainstream media’s reports, the Democrat’s attacks, and our jihad-driven enemy’s propaganda.
In sum, “The Man in the Middle” is a narrative of the Bush presidency interwoven in an often autobiographical work that retraces the path that led Tim into politics, eventually bringing him to Bush’s 2000 campaign and then on to the White House itself.
The autobiographical portions are very important, for they demonstrate how well suited Tim was to write this book, based on the totality of his reading, his mentors, and his dedication to his wife and two sons. And of course his experiences in the White House put him in the perfect place to write a book that provides the reader “a personal portrait” of President Bush, written “by a friend” and “White House insider who was on the outer ring,” yet who was “on occasion…honored to pray with the president.”