Fortunate Son: what's everyone's take on this book?

[anti_shrub]

I borrowed it from the library and have it on my Amazon list to buy, but does the fact that the author was involved in some shady dealings diminish the credibility of the book? We're so quick to point and laugh at freepers who read everything that criminals tell them, after all.

I guess what I'm asking is there any other sources that confirm what he says in his book, like Bush's cocaine arrest, so that when you confront right wingers they can't dismiss it by saying "oh you read that book by the guy who tried to blow up his co worker".

[grasswire]

1. I don't think...

...there will ever be absolute proof. No one who knows is willing to take the risk of offending the Bushes.

[PaDUer]

22. I was asked to post this comment below..

Anti_shrub....

Fortunate Son is a wonderful book. It is not the hack piece the Busista's would make it to be. It is the most comprehensive book, with a fair and balanced writing style. There are different versions of it out.

I know the research in this book is credible. Some of it I have verified myself, or contributed to it privately. I am the Assistant Editor for onlinejournal.com. Some well known journalists have used my research work because it's reliable, respected, and documented by facts.

If you'd like MORE INFO on this book, please contact her at [e-mail].

Linda Starr
Assistant Editor, OnlineJournal.com
Bush lied, Americans died!
Re-Defeat Bush in 2004.
Nobody died when Clinton lied.
"What Is George Dubya Hiding?"
StarrBuzz.com

[BurtWorm]

2. The Bushes succeeded in smearing Hatfield so thoroughly

that it will be a very, very long time before you will be able to talk about the merits of the book without having someone chime in "But what about Hatfield's attempted murder charge?" as if it has anything at all to do with the content of the book itself. The irony is that Hatfield is extremely fair to Bush. He makes him sound more intelligent than the evidence of your own ears and eyes would tell you.

I wrote to Sander Hicks, the publisher of Soft Skull, to ask him if he had proof that the man from Eufala (you'll find out who he is when you get to the afterword) was, in fact, Karl Rove. Hicks is an extremely generous guy. He wrote me several e-mails detailing his friendship--and problems--with Hatfield, and even sent the long-distance logs Hatfield gave him to support his belief that Rove was the Eufala man. He also wrote candidly about Hatfield's apparent suicide, and a new legal (actually criminal) problem that led up to it. So while it is true that Hatfield was far from perfect as a human being, Hicks believes that he was far more scrupulous as a writer and journalist. It's like wondering if OJ Simpson's football career or Pete Rose's baseball career were somehow less than they were because of their fucked up extracurricular lives.

[Abe Linkman]

3. Credibility of book's author

Asking about the credibility of the book, because the author was charged with a crime prior to writing the book is like questioning the integrity of any author who has told a lie in the past.

You wouldn't want your credibility to be judged that way, would you?

If there was a long pattern of making up lies about others, that would be different. But, that isn't the case here, is it?

[UTUSN]

4. Nothing in the Book Has Been Challenged.

It's like with BROCK and BLUMENTHAL: The wingnuts have attacked ad hominem, but except for one mistakend date or time of an event in the BROCK book, NOTHING in any of the three books has been contested. Because, I submit, it's all TRUE???------eh????? You KNOW that if something could be hung out there on a laundry line they would have done it, with neon arrows and bells and whistles. Nothing. There has been NOTHING. They just drove this dude to death and tried to smear BROCK about being mental and smear BLU with being a dirty trickster. These three will stand the test of time when Shrub's world comes crashing down.

[BurtWorm]

5. That's the dead giveaway on Fortunate Son especially

that they did not offer proof positive that W was not arrested for cocaine possession (or worse). They destroyed the messenger, because they couldn't refute the message.


PS: Not that I expect them to prove a negative. But why haven't they provided witnesses--even character witnesses--to counterbalance the meat of Hatfield's charges?

[UTUSN]

21. Kick for Truth's Sake n/t

[EOTE]

6. Franken does a good job of explaining the proof of bush's cocaine use...

Where it's not definitive, it's pretty freaking close. He wrote about an SNL sketch where a radioactive leak caused the president to grow to be 90 some feet tall. The scene went something like this:

Reporter: Can you confirm reports that the President is over 100 feet tall?

Press Secretary: Absolutely not, that's ridiculous.

Reporter: Can you confirm reports that the President is over 90 feet tall?

Press Secretary: No comment.

From that, we can gather that the President was between 90 and 100 feet tall. Bush, by answering whether or not he had done coke within the past 10 years or so, but refusing to answer whether or not he had done coke in the past 20 years was basically admitting that he had done coke somewhere between 20 and 10 years ago.

[DemBones DemBones]

7. I think that "Fortunate Son" is actually fair and balanced

journalism. Hatfield doesn't attack Bush* in the book, just details events in his life. Of course he pursued stories that reflected badly on Bush* but that's what a biographer does unless he's doing a puff piece. When I read "Fortunate Son," there were times when I even felt sorry for Bush*!

[jiacinto]

8. I read the book

It gives only part of the picture. But after reading it I left with the same impression of Bush that I had before--he was not qualified to president, nor did he have America's best interests in mine. The book was more sympathetic to Bush than I thought it would be.

[nostamj]

9. i read it recently

and was surprised at how even-handed the tone of the book was.

I expected a hachet job, extremely partisan, and you really can't say that about the book.

of course, bushies (the lowest form of life currently on the planet), cannot take the slightest criticism.

worth reading... but don't expect BUCKETS of dirt.

[alcatraz]

10. It's basic literacy.

I, too, was troubled by the author's reputation. But I wanted to judge the book on its own merits. I was blown away by the notes. It has about 40 pages of references, which are strung out one after another without line breaks and look like solid text unbroken by paragraph breaks. Hatfield must have read everything that had been written about his subject.

In my opinion, the focus on the cocaine incident is misguided. It's such a serious charge, and the people who know the truth have such a strong incentive to keep their mouths shut, we may never find out what happened.

I think the book is valuable because of its coverage of Bush's term as Governor of Texas and his relationship with Karl Rove. Reading it in 2003, I was struck by how much his governorship was just a dry run for his presidency. Then, as now, Rove planned every move. Then, as now, the agenda unfolded in lockstep. Then, as now, everything he did was payment to a rich benefactor. As governor, Bush even said: My job would be a lot easier if I was a dictator!

[newyawker99]

13. Hi Alcatraz!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[alcatraz]

11. It's basic literacy.

judge the book on its own merits. I was blown away by the notes. It has about 40 pages of references, which are strung out one after another without line breaks and look like solid text unbroken by paragraph breaks. Hatfield must have read everything that had been written about his subject.

In my opinion, the focus on the cocaine incident is misguided. It's such a serious charge, and the people who know the truth have such a strong incentive to keep their mouths shut, we may never find out what happened.

I think the book is valuable because of its coverage of Bush's term as Governor of Texas and his relationship with Karl Rove. Reading it in 2003, I was struck by how much his governorship was just a dry run for his presidency. Then, as now, Rove planned every move. Then, as now, the agenda unfolded in lockstep. Then, as now, everything he did was payment to a rich benefactor. As governor, Bush even said: My job would be a lot easier if I was a dictator!

[the_real_38]

12. I read "first son"...

.... it was really good, and I recommend it.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

14. my take..BFEE baxterized the author...Hatfield dead

[SharonAnn]

16. Like Kelly in the UK

Just a lot of that going around.

[mitchum]

15. It's to die for...

(unfortunately)
Everyone should read this book.

[newsguyatl]

17. i think that's the whole point

THAT the tone was so balanced, THAT hatfield came across as a TRUE journalist, not out for cheap shots... THAT his research was so painstaking... all this, and still the damning information in the book... it all makes it that much more devastating.

i STRONGLY recommend reading it to folks... one of my favorites for sure!

[VermontDem2004]

18. It is the only non-biased political book I ever read

He just reports what he did as Governor and what he did as a young adult, some good some bad. You can check out the 7 pages of booknotes if you want to check out the book. The very last chapter he talks about interviews he had with people and never confirms Bush was arrested for Cocaine, there is a rumor.

[DoveTurnedHawk]

19. Hatfield Had a Problem With Quote Attribution

I saw the movie "Horns and Halos" (great movie, btw). Out of (I think) 18 quotes selected at random, 6 from anti-Bush people, 6 from neutral people, 6 from pro-Bush people, the majority were apparently denied by their supposed makers.

Additionally, there was often a problem of improper attribution. Something like this:

"Bush was drunk," and often snorted cocaine, Miss Muffett said. MM might have said the part actually in quotes, but she didn't say the editorialized/paraphrased part after that...despite the fact that it appears she signed off on the entire sentence.

Those types of problems make me suspect the veracity of the book (although I fully admit I haven't read it...I am going off of reports from H&H).

DTH

[VermontDem2004]

20. You should read it

It is very factual the Cocaine use part is only in the afterword but never confirms it. He talks about his search for the truth on whether or not Bush Jr. was arrested for Cocaine and later had his record expunged.

[John_H]

23. Why don't you tell people

You don't need a book to see what a train wreck Chimpy's "presidency" has been.