is threat to democracy
by Sally Acharya, American Weekly, Feb. 7, 2006
The gravest threat to the country, the one that could “do this country in,” is secrecy in government, famed investigative journalist Bob Woodward told a standing-room-only crowd last month at the Kay Spiritual Life Center.
 |
Bob
Woodard speaking on AU campus Thursday, Feb. 2. Photo by Jeff Watts |
He spoke at AU about his most recent book, Plan of Attack (2004), an exhaustive account of the inside workings of the Bush administration as it planned the Iraq war, and answered questions from the audience.
Described in 2003 by the Wall Street Journal as “the most celebrated journalist of our age,” Woodward’s role in uncovering the Watergate scandal and his subsequent 12 best-selling nonfiction books have made him a household name.
It’s clear that the war is at the center of politics today, and also at “the emotional center” of American life, Woodward said. The decision to go to war is key in understanding who George Bush is, and is also one that not only “defines us to the world,” he said, but “ends up defining us to ourselves.”
Both the Kerry and the Bush campaigns recommended Plan of Attack, he noted, with some finding in it a portrait of Bush as a determined and focused president, and others seeing it as revealing a dysfunctional process that led to an unnecessary war. His wife, quipped Woodward, concluded that both campaigns recommended it because neither had read it.
While putting together the book, he wanted an interview with Bush. He approached him by sending a 21-page memo that demonstrated he already had so much information he could go to press regardless of whether Bush wanted to participate or not.
“Information begets information,” he said. As a result, he was able to get the longest interview with Bush that a sitting president has ever given, he said. He asked some 500 questions in the course of the tape-recorded interview, many of which were variations on “the most important question in journalism:” the question, “why?”
“In my business, we’re trained to doubt,” Woodward said. But when he asked Bush if he had any doubts, the president answered that he had no doubts. “I have to be the calcium in the backbone,” Bush explained, because if he isn’t strong the others around him will waiver.
