Bob Woodward, who wrote two books praising President Bush and then a third harshly criticizing him, is out with a fourth tome that renders a mixed verdict on Bush, lauding the president’s surge of troops into Iraq, but saying “too often he failed to lead.”
At 487 pages, “The War Within” is the fourth installment in Woodward’s series of books on the president. Its release is embargoed until Monday, although an advance copy was obtained exclusively by FOX News.
The new book is less critical than Woodward’s last tome, “State of Denial,” which savaged Bush for his execution of the war in Iraq. “Denial” ended with the line: “With all Bush’s upbeat talk and optimism, he had not told the American public the truth about what Iraq had become.”
Woodward repeats the line in his new book, adding: “My reporting for this book showed that to be even more the case than I could have imagined.”