Guest Review: Goodnight Bush

Matt is one of Vance’s roommates and the books he usually reads are way over my head.  He wrote this review of Goodnight Bush by Erich Origen and Gan Golen.  Thanks, Matt!

The classic children’s book Goodnight Moon(GM), with its creative color schemes and charming pictures, helped a generation of kids fall asleep.  A parody of the aforementioned book entitled Goodnight Bush(GB) satirizes the political and economic environment of our country during the Bush presidency.

As well put together as GB seems to be; it shares the overall style of GM, has some excellent drawings in it (especially one on the back cover with Dick Cheney playing a metallophone of Terror), a few humorous anecdotes taking shots at the Presidency like a bookshelf with such classics as the Holy Bible: Cliff’s Notes, Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, Sun Tzu’s Art of War and 1984 for Dummies, the book overall falls flat in presentation because of some reckless satire.

In the toy box (shaped like a White House which I’ll have to admit is kind of a cute concept) is a box of MonopolE (the E standing for Enron) – also present is a small KKK figurine.  The revealing of corrupt business practices during the Enron scandal did happen early in the Bush presidency, however, the actual crimes were committed through almost the entire Clinton administration. In reality, the policing of business practices of specific companies is far from the specific duty of the President and is (barring a specific action of the President’s i.e. Roosevelt’s Progressive Policies and breaking up monopolies and trusts) not the President’s responsibility.  The use of the Enron scandal feels like another out of place attack on the Bush presidency, which really shouldn’t be there.

Overall, Goodnight Bush is excellent in its depictions of certain aspects of conservatism during Bush’s administration, like the presence of a Fox being pet by Dick Cheney, or a glass of water being spilled over on to figurines representing New Orleans and its population.  The overall message of GB is more than sympathetic to people in the country today. George Bush will no doubt go down in history as one of our least popular presidents.  Also the drawings and style of the book being tied together with Goodnight Moon is inventive and charming, however the book is not very intelligent and it’s not comedic.