13 "the best of the presidency": George W. Bush, Decision Points, 352.

14 "He loved being in Africa": Rice interview.

15 "I hope that he will campaign": George W. Bush and John McCain, joint appearance, March 5, 2008, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2008/03/20080305-4.html.

16 "Tim, I have known mercy": Tim Goeglein, author interview.

17 seemed to suggest to Esquire: Thomas M. Barnett, "The Man Between War and Peace," Esquire, April 2008, http://www.esquire.com/features/fox-fallon.

18 "I'd fire him in a heartbeat": Senior official, author interview.

19 "Don't say that": Sorkin, Too Big to Fail, 3839.

20 "the fact is, the whole system": Paulson, On the Brink, 92.

21 "This is the real thing": Ibid., 96.

22 "you can take out that": Ibid., 1012.

23 "It seems like I showed up": George W. Bush, speech to Economic Club of New York, March 14, 2008, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2008/03/20080314-5.html.

24 comparing the president: Senator Charles Schumer told a news conference, "The president is looking more and more like Herbert Hoover, sort of whistling a happy tune as the economy heads south." Federal News Service transcript, March 14, 2008.

25 "We're going to get killed": Sorkin, Too Big to Fail, 3839.

26 "Two-thirds of Americans": Martha Raddatz, interview with Dick Cheney, March 19, 2007. After a furor arose about his answer, Cheney tried to pass it off, saying Raddatz had simply made a statement and he was prompting her for a question. He gave another interview to Raddatz on March 24, 2007, and when she asked about it, he said, "Well, you didn't really ask me a question, Martha, as I recall." But he went on to essentially reaffirm his meaning. "The point I wanted to make and I will make again is the president of the United States under these circumstances dealing with these kinds of issues can't make decisions based on public opinion polls."

27 "He believed that losing": John Hannah, author interview.

28 "Everything else was less important": Liz Cheney, author interview.

29 "It was very, very precipitous": David Petraeus, author interview.

30 "Everybody here thought this": Douglas Lute, author interview.

31 "Don't tell me this is a bad": George W. Bush, Decision Points, 389.

32 "This has some potential": Petraeus interview.

33 "We have wanted him to step up": Lute interview.

34 "This is going to be a decisive": Petraeus interview.

35 "I hope it's going to be": Ibid.

36 "He came back from Basra": Lute interview.

37 "went from being docile": Lindsey Graham, author interview.

38 "So you're saying you're": Fiona Hill, author interview.

39 "You're not with the policy": Ibid. In an e-mail exchange with the author, Joe Wood said he did not recall saying those words but may have said that "I didn't think she should push any policy view one way or the other."

40 "I looked in his eyes and I saw": Administration official, author interview.

41 "If they want it and they've": Second administration official, author interview.

42 "This is about me and Angela": Damon Wilson, author interview.

43 "I will see you at the OK": Ibid.

44 Putin had compared the United: Vladimir Putin, speech, Munich Security Conference, May 9, 2007. He said, "We do not have the right to forget the causes of any war, which must be sought in the mistakes and errors of peacetime. Moreover, in our time, these threats are not diminishing. They are only transforming, changing their appearance. In these new threats, as during the time of the Third Reich, are the same contempt for human life and the same claims of exceptionality and diktat in the world." Andrew E. Kramer, New York Times, May 9, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/09/world/europe/10cnd-russia.html.

45 "Look, the only way I can": Wilson interview.

46 "We agreed today that": Bucharest Summit Declaration, NATO Summit, April 3, 2008, http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/official_texts_8443.htm.

47 "The Russians were furious": Hill interview.

48 "flashing yellow light": Carl Bildt, the Swedish foreign minister, used the term in describing how Mikheil Saakashvili interpreted messages from Washington. Asmus, Little War That Shook the World, 14244.

49 "wanted something more robust": David Gordon, author interview.

50 "We were arguing that": Ibid.

51 "We had an extremely": Patel interview.

52 "There were a lot of questions": Jim Connaughton, author interview.

53 "The wrong way is": George W. Bush, speech on climate change, Rose Garden, April 16, 2008, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2008/04/20080416-6.html.

54 "Most people looked around": Patel interview.

55 "Looking back, maybe we": Connaughton interview.

56 "going fucking crazy": Hayden interview.

57 Palestinians 94 percent: Rice, No Higher Honor, 65153.

58 "It sounds like he's serious": Ibid.

59 playing "Trumpet Voluntary": Sandra Sobieraj Westfall and Beth Perry, "Jenna Bush's Texas Style Wedding," People, May 26, 2008, http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20203980,00.html.

60 Bush had it rewritten: Ed Gillespie, author interview. See also Matt Latimer, "When Bush Caved to Egypt," The Daily Beast, January 30, 2011, http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/01/30/president-bush-pulled-his-punches-on-egypts-mubarak-too.html.

61 "a fateful misstep": McClellan, What Happened, xii.

62 find a way to forgive: Dana Perino, author interview at the time.

63 Karen Hughes was struck: Karen Hughes, author interview.

64 "The only reason I have": Brett McGurk, author interview. This was a favorite Cheney line. When Mark Leibovich, then a reporter for the Washington Post, asked him in the first term whether he would write a memoir someday, Cheney said, "Sometimes I think I got this job because I didn't write about the last job." See Leibovich, "The Strong, Silent Type," Washington Post, January 18, 2004.

65 "If he doesn't want me to go": Latimer, Speech-Less, 26769.

66 "He can't get five hundred": Ibid.

67 "What do you guys think about": Administration official, author interview. In an interview with the author, Ed Gillespie said he did not remember that conversation.

68 "shall not be suspended": Article I, Section 9, U.S. Constitution, http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html.

69 "The laws and Constitution": Anthony M. Kennedy, majority opinion, Boumediene v. Bush, June 12, 2008, http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/06-1195.ZO.html.

70 she refused to use them: Sean McCormack, author interview.

71 "We're just signing a piece of paper": Matt Latimer, author interview.

72 "Now that's verifiable": Rice interview.

CHAPTER 35: "OUR PEOPLE ARE GOING TO HATE US FOR THIS".

1 "That's ridiculous": Baker, "Final Days."

2 "Nothing can erase": John Bolton, "The Tragic End of Bush's North Korea Policy," Wall Street Journal, June 30, 2008, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121478274355214441.html?mod=djemEditorialPage.

3 "Let me just say from": Baker, "Final Days."

4 "Phyllis Schlafly with a mustache": Christopher Hill, author interview.

5 "Do you really want to": Stephen Hadley, author interview.

6 "seemed so out of keeping": Dick Cheney, In My Time, 486.

7 "he was only going to fight": Cheney friend, author interview.

8 "Cheney won that one": Ibid.

9 "On balance": Michael Hayden, author interview.

10 "We have been 0 for '07": Ibid.

11 "We're seeing a dangerous accumulation": Juan Carlos Zarate, author interview.

12 The plan called for a much: Senior administration officials, author interviews. See also Schmitt and Shanker, Counterstrike, 1023.

13 "a Home Depotsized warehouse": Hayden interview.

14 "We're going to stop playing the game": Mazzetti, Way of the Knife, 267.

15 69 percent disapproval: Gallup Poll, April 1820, 2008, http://www.gallup.com/poll/106741/bushs-69-job-disapproval-rating-highest-gallup-history.aspx.

16 just 28 percent supported: New York Times/CBS News poll, March 28April 2, 2008. http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/politics/20080404_POLL.PDF.

17 contemplating Bush's assassination: Nicholson Baker published Checkpoint in 2004 about a character who threatens to kill Bush. In 2006, Gabriel Range produced the movie Death of a President with computer-generated special effects depicting Bush's assassination. Among those who considered it in poor taste was Hillary Clinton, who called it "despicable" and "absolutely outrageous." Dwight R. Worley, "Sen. Hillary Clinton Blasts Bush Assassination Film," Journal News, September 16, 2006, http://web.archive.org/web/20061023003633/http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060916/UPDATE/609160394. And in 2007, Krandall Kraus published the novel The Assassination of George W. Bush: A Love Story, in which a disillusioned Secret Service agent from Midland, Texas, decides to kill Bush.

18 68 percent of Americans: USA Today/Gallup poll, June 1519, 2008, http://www.gallup.com/poll/108490/americans-worry-mccain-would-too-similar-bush.aspx.

19 "He became an albatross": Joseph Lieberman, author interview.

20 "It wasn't fair": Charles Black, author interview.

21 Black was deputized: Ibid. See also Heilemann and Halperin, Game Change, 366.

22 "It was so ingrained in": Nicolle Wallace, author interview.

23 "listened too much": Roger Simon, "McCain Bashes Cheney over Iraq Policy," Politico, January 22, 2007, http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0107/2390.html.

24 "His attitude was, look": Black interview.

25 to the storm as "disgraceful": Elisabeth Bumiller, "McCain Assails Administration for 'Disgraceful' Response to Katrina," New York Times, April 25, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/world/americas/25iht-mccain.4.12355635.html.

26 "Republicans will be saying": Notes taken by participants after private conversations with George W. Bush, provided to author.

27 "I felt that a straightforward": Dick Cheney, In My Time, 520.

28 "He had the sometimes": George W. Bush remarks, Tony Snow memorial service, July 17, 2008, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2008/07/20080717-1.html.

29 "Mr. President, it is in this": Administration official, author interview.

30 "when I made the decision": Senior official, author interview.

31 "It was literally like William Wallace": Tony Fratto, author interview.

32 "We're worse off than we": John McCain, campaign ad, "Broken," August 5, 2008, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylJkmMR8Fek.

33 He found Medvedev "hot": George W. Bush, Decision Points, 43435.

34 Later reports indicated: A European Union investigation, citing a Russian official agency, reported that 162 South Ossetian civilians were killed during the entire course of the war from August 7 to 12. South Ossetia produced a list of 365 residents killed during the entire war, including both civilians and members of the armed services. Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Conflict in Georgia, 22324, http://www.ceiig.ch/pdf/IIFFMCG_Volume_II.pdf.

35 "I hope you're not": George W. Bush, Decision Points, 43435.

36 "I've been warning you": Ibid.