10 "He was very wary": David Gordon, author interview.

11 "People don't understand": Draper, Dead Certain, 286.

12 "I personally favor an NSC": Donald Rumsfeld, author interview.

13 "I was struck by how deft": McClellan, What Happened, 243.

14 "I want you to be secretary": Condoleezza Rice, author interview.

15 "repair work to do": Rice, No Higher Honor, 29293.

16 "I don't intend to spend": Ibid., 541.

17 "At times, Don frustrated": George W. Bush, Decision Points, 9194.

18 "was criminal negligence": Kenneth Adelman, author interview.

19 "the right fit": George W. Bush, Decision Points, 9194.

20 "He was not going to trust": Peter Baker and Susan Schmidt, "Ashcroft's Complex Tenure at Justice," Washington Post, May 20, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/19/AR2007051901275.html.

21 "a self-promoter and grandstander": Senior administration official, author interview.

22 "I thought we were going": Colin Powell, author interview.

23 "If I go, Don should go": Woodward, State of Denial, 362.

24 "out of nowhere": George W. Bush, Decision Points, 9194.

25 Powell told no one: DeYoung, Soldier, 810.

26 "As we have discussed": Colin Powell to George W. Bush, resignation letter, November 12, 2004, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/documents/cabinetresignations/powell.pdf.

27 "You mean Rumsfeld?": Michael Gerson, author interview.

28 "one of the great public": George W. Bush, written statement, November 15, 2004, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/11/20041115-2.html.

29 "We are not winning": Gordon and Trainor, Cobra II, 496.

30 About fifteen thousand American and British troops: "US Troops Storm Towards Centre of Fallujah," Agence France-Presse, November 9, 2004.

31 Three relatives of Prime: Karl Vick and Naseer Nouri, "3 Allawi Relatives Held Hostage," Washington Post, November 11, 2004.

32 2,175 insurgents reported killed: Gordon and Trainor, Endgame, 120.

33 "The elections should not be": George W. Bush and President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, remarks to reporters, December 2, 2004, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/12/20041202-3.html.

34 uncover a trove of disturbing: John Solomon and Peter Baker, "White House Looked Past Alarms on Kerik," Washington Post, April 8, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/07/AR2007040701398.html?hpidopnews.

35 "These three men symbolize": George W. Bush, remarks, Medal of Freedom ceremony, December 14, 2004, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/12/20041214-3.html.

36 Tenet had signed a book contract: Hillel Italie, "Former CIA Director Tenet Agrees to Book Deal with Crown Publishing," Associated Press, December 7, 2004.

37 Tenet put the book project: "Former CIA Director Puts Off Memoir," Associated Press, March 2, 2005.

38 "You won't hear anything about": Kean and Hamilton, Without Precedent, 315.

39 "The result would be a train": Donald Rumsfeld to George W. Bush, memo, September 11, 2004, library.rumsfeld.com/doclib/sp/390/To%20President%20George%20W.%20Bush%20re%20Intelligence%20'Reform'%2009-11-2004.pdf#search='train%20wreck'

40 "the differences in the opinions": Yoo, War by Other Means, 183.

41 "Not only did he read it": Natan Sharansky, author interview.

42 "It says what I believe": Notes of meeting with rabbis and Jewish community leaders, taken by White House official, December 9, 2004, provided to author.

43 "I'm not calling about": Gerson interview.

44 "If there is ever to be a moment": John Lewis Gaddis to White House, memo, January 2005.

45 "ought to be a big idea": John Lewis Gaddis, author interview.

46 "utterly utopian": Charles Krauthammer, e-mail exchange with author.

47 considered it "boffo": Eliot Cohen, author interview.

48 "Nobody likes tyrants": Gaddis interview.

49 the president suggested a metaphor: Gerson interview.

50 "John Kennedy could have": John McConnell, author interview.

51 "That's why you don't show": Bartlett interview.

52 "it was over the top in terms": Powell interview.

53 "I worried that it would be": Rumsfeld interview.

54 "that is kind of a big goal": Condoleezza Rice, author interview.

55 "This is not a speech Dick": Woodward, State of Denial, 377.

56 his "left-wing daughter": Cheney interview.

57 "Unless there were some reason": Ibid.

58 "Dan, subsistence, subsistence": McConnell interview.

59 "We have seen our vulnerability": George W. Bush, inaugural address, January 20, 2005, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2005/01/20050120-1.html.

60 "Don't back down one bit": Hadley interview.

CHAPTER 21: "WHO DO THEY THINK THEY ARE? I WAS REELECTED TOO"

1 asked for the duty officer: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 360.

2 "We'll see who's right": Woodward, State of Denial, 382.

3 "the haggard capital": Anthony Shadid, "Iraqis Defy Threats as Millions Vote," Washington Post, January 31, 2005.

4 the military recorded 299 attacks: Casey, Strategic Reflections, 71.

5 "You have to turn on": Woodward, State of Denial, 383.

6 skeptics on his team: Senior administration officials, author interviews.

7 told a Bush aide they: Grover Norquist, author interview.

8 Senator Mitch McConnell: Al Hubbard, author interview.

9 "For the first time in": Hamburger and Wallsten, One Party Country, 2016.

10 "create a crisis mentality": McClellan, What Happened, 248.

11 While nearly seventeen: In the earliest years of the program, there were actually 42 workers per retiree, but after the program was expanded into closer to what it would become in the modern era, the ratio fell to 16.5 to 1 in 1950 and descended from there. Still, the ratio had largely stabilized in recent years. It had fallen to 3 to 1 by 1975, three decades before Bush would launch his initiative. Social Security Administration, http://www.socialsecurity.gov/OACT/TR/2010/lr4b2.html.

12 By 2018, the system would: Status of the Social Security and Medicare Programs, 2004 Annual Reports, http://www.ssa.gov/history/pdf/tr04summary.pdf.

13 expenditures had overtaken: Ibid.

14 at least $700 billion: Michael A. Fletcher and Peter Baker, "Bush Makes Case for Social Security Plan," Washington Post, February 3, 2005.

15 "maximizes the chance of getting": Keith Hennessey to Senior Staff, memo, "Subject: Social Security Strategy," January 10, 2005, provided to author.

16 "By the year 2042": George W. Bush, State of the Union address, February 2, 2005, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2005/02/20050202-11.html.

17 picking five states that: George W. Bush traveled to North Dakota, Montana, Nebraska, Arkansas, and Florida. The Democratic senators targeted were Kent Conrad, Byron Dorgan, Max Baucus, Ben Nelson, Mark Pryor, Blanche Lincoln, and Bill Nelson.

18 Condoleezza Rice, knew Khodorkovsky: Susan Glasser and Peter Baker, "The Billionaire Dissident," Foreign Policy, May/June 2010, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/04/26/the_billionaire_dissident?page=full.

19 "You talk about Khodorkovsky": George W. Bush, teleconference with Tony Blair, March 1, 2005. Notes of call, provided to author.

20 "Don't lecture me about": George W. Bush, Decision Points, 43233.

21 "Why don't you talk a lot": George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin, news conference, Bratislava, Slovakia, July 24, 2005, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2005/02/20050224-9.html.

22 "It was fairly unpleasant": Notes of call, provided to author.

23 "enemy forces": Reeves, President Reagan, 164.

24 "It's strange for me to say": David Ignatius, "Beirut's Berlin Wall," Washington Post, February 23, 2005.

25 "This is the most difficult": Peter Baker, "Mideast Strides Lift Bush, but Challenges Remain," Washington Post, March 8, 2005.

26 "he may have had it right": Daniel Schorr, "The Iraq Effect? Bush May Have Had It Right," Christian Science Monitor, March 4, 2005, http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0304/p09s03-cods.html.

27 "Where Bush Was Right": Newsweek, March 14, 2005, http://www.jadaliyya.com/content_images/fck_images/lebanon/2005-03-14_newsweek_cover.jpg. The headline on the cover was slightly different from the one on the story inside by Fareed Zakaria, which was headlined "What Bush Got Right," http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2005/03/13/what-bush-got-right.html.

28 "The second term is going": Stephen Hadley, author interview.

29 "What I think happened": Karen Hughes, author interview.

30 "Our nation has won two wars": Christopher Hill, author interview.

31 "the time for diplomacy is now": Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, January 18, 2005, Federal News Service transcript. She actually used the phrase three times during her testimony to emphasize the point.

32 "What it was basically saying": Rice adviser, author interview.

33 "that was essentially a declaration": Another Rice adviser, author interview.

34 "Who do they think they": Woodward, State of Denial, 391.

35 "readjust the thermometer": Frances Fragos Townsend, author interview.

36 "You're allowed to talk": Steve Schmidt, author interview.

37 "Here, sit in the hot-wired": Person in the room, author interview.

38 "Do I have to do this": Ibid.

39 "Bigger, tougher, stronger": Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, Kremlin Rising (Dulles, Va.: Potomac Books, 2007), 389.

40 "You're making many": George W. Bush, address, Tbilisi, Georgia, May 10, 2005, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2005/05/20050510-2.html.

41 landed sixty-one feet from Bush: FBI summary of event and subsequent investigation, January 11, 2006, http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2006/january/grenade_attack011106. Georgian authorities working with the FBI later identified the would-be assassin as Vladimir Arutyunian, an Armenian born in Georgia, and arrested him at his apartment. Arutyunian killed a Georgian police officer during the arrest. His DNA matched a sample found on the red plaid cloth that had been wrapped around the grenade; he was convicted for the attempted assassination and the killing of the police officer and sentenced to life in prison. Arutyunian admitted throwing the grenade, saying he tossed it in a way that he hoped would spread shrapnel over the transparent bulletproof barrier that partially shielded the podium, but his motive remained a mystery.

42 "Whatever we need to do": Reid, Good Fight, 152. A spokesman for Max Baucus confirmed the account in an e-mail exchange with the author.

43 had fallen from 58 percent: Survey released by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press on May 19, 2005, http://www.people-press.org/2005/05/19/economy-iraq-weighing-down-bush-popularity/.

44 "The military needs that": Rice, No Higher Honor, 45859.

45 "Human rights trump": Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, 63536.

46 the "olive branch tour": Nicholas Burns, author interview.

47 "That makes sense": Condoleezza Rice, author interview.

48 "There certainly seemed": Christine Todd Whitman, author interview.