''Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential'' is a book by James Moore and Wayne Slater that chronicles the political career of

Karl Rove Karl Christian Rove (born December 25, 1950) is an American Republican political consultant, policy advisor, and lobbyist. He was Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff during the George W. Bush administration until his resignation on August 3 ...

and the role he has played in the elections of

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

, both when running for Governor of Texas and for president. It was published in 2003 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. . In 2004, a documentary film was directed and produced by Joseph Mealey and Michael Paradies Shoob with the shortened title, ''Bush's Brain''. In that film, a series of political insiders of both major parties suggest that Karl Rove, President George W. Bush's closest advisor, has almost single-handedly shaped United States executive branch policies, since the days when George W. Bush was running for Governor of Texas. The documentary film, available on DVD (DVD release date: February 15, 2005, run time: 80 minutes), is narrated by Jacques Vroom, Jr. and contains a soundtrack featuring the music of singer-songwriter political activist,

Michelle Shocked Michelle Shocked (born Karen Michelle Johnston; February 24, 1962) is an American singer-songwriter. Her music has entered the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, been nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album, and received an award f ...

. Moore and Slater have followed up that book, after the 2004 Presidential election, with ''Rove Exposed: How Bush's Brain Fooled America'' (2005) .

Film

Filmed and narrated in the style of a detective story, the film investigates events that occurred during election. In one of the film's early scenes, the film contends that Karl Rove, with Republican Bill Clements as his client in a Texas gubernatorial race, contacted the FBI after finding a hidden microphone-transmitter in his office. Following the announcement of the bugging of Rove's office, Bill Clements won the election over the Democratic incumbent, Mark White. The film was narrated by Jacques Vroom, Jr. and full details, cast and crew can be found on

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

Reception

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a score of 48, indicating "Mixed or average reviews."

Lou Lumenick Louis J. Lumenick (born September 11, 1949) is an American film critic. He was the chief film critic and film editor for the ''New York Post'' where he reviewed films from 1999 until his retirement in 2016. He is currently researching the histor ...

of the ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

'' gave the film three stars and called it "one of the better political documentaries flooding into theaters after '

Fahrenheit 9/11 ''Fahrenheit 9/11'' is a 2004 American documentary film directed, written by, and starring filmmaker, director, political commentator and activist Michael Moore. The film takes a liberal, critical look at the presidency of George W. Bush, the w ...

' and before the election."

Peter Travers Peter Joseph Travers (born ) is an American film critic, journalist, and television presenter. He reviews films for ABC News and previously served as a movie critic for ''People'' and ''Rolling Stone''. Travers also hosts the film interview prog ...

of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' gave the film three stars out of four.

Other works by the authors

James Moore and Wayne Slater

*'' The Architect: Karl Rove and the Dream of Absolute Power'' *''Rove Exposed: How Bush's Brain Fooled America''

James Moore

*'' Bush's War For Reelection: Iraq, the White House, and the People''

Notes

References

*James C. Moore and Wayne Slater, ''Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential'', book from John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2003, . *James C. Moore and Wayne Slater, ''Rove Exposed: How Bush's Brain Fooled America'' (2005), . *Joseph Mealey and Michael Paradies Shoob, ''Bush's Brain'', film, 2004. *Joseph Mealey and Michael Paradies Shoob ''Bush's Brain'' (film DVD), Studio: Tla Entertainment Group, DVD release date: February 15, 2005, run time: 80 minutes, ASIN: B000B5XP2E.

External links

*Stephen Holden, "FILM REVIEW; Postulating a Dark Side to a Bush Operative's Work," ''The New York Times'', August 27, 2004, web:
Bush's Brain - Review - Movie
{Dead link, date=July 2019 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes " (accessed 2006-09-13). 2003 non-fiction books Books about George W. Bush Documentary films about American politics 2004 documentary films Non-fiction books adapted into films American documentary films