gutzmankI agree with Tom that there’s not a dependable W book.
My own view of the GHWB selection is that it was by far Reagan’s greatest mistake–although it could have been mitigated by Reagan’s coming out for a Reaganite in the 1988 primaries, which unfortunately he refused to do. Daddy Bush was generally supported by people who wanted a third Reagan term, despite protests from some few of us that there was no reason to think that Bush had changed his stripes. He hadn’t. In fact, Richard Darman later conceded that he went into the first budget negotiations with the Democratic congressional leadership determined to raise taxes simply to put the president’s promise not to do so behind us: lying was his principle. And, of course, Bush signed off on the result.
Bush, Sr. also signed off on a “civil rights” bill that Pat Buchanan famously dubbed “The Quota Bill,” appointed David Souter to the Supreme Court (despite his saying in Senate hearings that he admired Justice William Brennan, literally the most avowedly anti-originalist justice ever), and otherwise made a hash of the Reagan legacy.
Again, the Bushes are Reagan’s Big Mistake.