Hell of a ride

Imagine a White House M*A*S*H written by a Reagan-Bush staffer - a hilarious inside account of high power at very low ebb. There has never been a book quite like Hell of a Ride - a wildly original chronicle of a presidency on the verge of a nervous breakdown. It tells the sorry tale of how a president with a 91 percent approval rating in March 1991 ended up with a humiliating 38 percent of the vote in November 1992 through the eyes of the people who had the most to lose.

The panicked and soon-to-be-unemployed staffers populating the Bush White House. Award-winning journalist, Reagan speechwriter, and five-time "Jeopardy" champion John Podhoretz peels away the myths both positive and negative about George Bush to reveal a president and a presidency that had literally no idea what they were about. We see Bush and Co. frittering away the affection of America, damaging the economy and mortally wounding the Republicans all in the short space.

Of 18 months. Podhoretz unmasks the sycophants and paper tigers in the palace court of King George, and finally reveals the startlingly empty core at the center of the Bush White House: George Bush himself.