An Extremely Abridged History of the George W. Bush Presidency

The clear front-runner for president was Adnan Pachachi, the elderly Sunni statesman. . . . The prime ministerial question was thornier. [U.N. diplomat Lakhdar] Brahimi's initial candidate was Hussein al-Shahristani, a Shiite nuclear scientist. . . . Saddam had had him imprisoned for eleven years for refusing to cooperate in the Baathists' secret nuclear weapons program. . . .

I mentioned his name at a telephonic NSC meeting the next day. The president went straight to the heart of the matter as he saw it: "It's important to have someone willing to stand up and thank the American people for their sacrifice in liberating Iraq. I don't expect us to pick a yes man. But at least I want someone who will be grateful." -- L. Paul Bremer, was presidential envoy to Iraq. My Year in Iraq: The Struggle to Build a Future of Hope with Malcolm McConnell (Simon & Schuster)

George W. Bush, Conservationist

The energy issue stirred not only Bush's hawkish patriotism, but his ancestral puritanism. After finishing a speech practice in the Map Room one afternoon, he pointed with exasperation at a table lamp and demanded: Do you think it's going to occur to anybody to turn that lamp off when we leave the room?" And he walked over and flicked it off himself. It vexed him to look out the windows of the White House family quarters before sunrise and see the Executive Office Building bright with lights that had been carelessly left burning overnight. -- David Frum, was a presidential speechwriter. The Right Man: An Inside Account of the Bush White House (Random House)

Kerry Concedes

A little later, Rove, Karen Hughes, Dan Bartlett, chief speechwriter Mike Gerson, and I were visiting with the president in the Oval. We were expecting Kerry's call at any moment. Don Rumsfeld, grinning ear to ear, popped his head in briefly to congratulate the president.

At 11:02 a.m. [on Nov. 3, 2004], Bush's assistant Ashley Estes appeared. "Mr. President, Senator Kerry is on the line." The president walked back to his desk to sit down and pick up the phone. We could only hear Bush's side of the conversation: "I think you were an admirable, worthy opponent. You waged one tough campaign. I hope you are proud of the effort you put in. You should be."

When Bush hung up after three or four minutes, he said, slightly choking up, "That was very gracious." Then he started to tear up. -- McClellan

Taking on Hugo Chavez

When Bush asked [U.N. Secretary General Kofi] Annan [in February 2006] why he wasn't more critical of Chavez, Annan suggested instead that the United States "engage" more with Chavez to "defuse" the problem. I could see Bush's eyes glazing over, and he finally broke in to say, "Chavez would be a real pain in the ass on the Security Council." Then he laughed, and said, "I know I'm a pain in the ass, but at least I'm friendly." -- John Bolton, was U.S. representative at the U.N. Surrender Is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations and Abroad (Threshold Editions)

Fannie and Freddie

For the five years we overlapped, President Bush honored his commitment to the autonomy of the Fed. Of course, during most of that time we kept short-term interest rates extremely low, so there wasn't much to complain about . . .

The administration also took the Fed's advice on policies we thought were essential for the health of the financial markets. Most important was the effort that began in 2003 to curb excesses at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the companies chartered by Congress to help underwrite home mortgages. . . . The companies employed skillful lobbyists and had powerful advocates in Congress. President Bush had very little to gain politically by supporting a crackdown. Yet he backed the Fed through a two-year struggle that resulted in crucial reforms. -- Greenspan

How the Decider Decided

On a visit to Crawford Elementary School . . . , one of the students asked him whether he found it hard to make decisions . . . "Is it hard to make decisions as president? Not really. If you know what you believe, decisions come pretty easy. If you're one of these types of people that are always trying to figure out which way the wind is blowing, decision making can be difficult. But I find that I know who I am. I know what I believe in, and I know where I want to lead the country. And most of the decisions come pretty easily for me, let me be frank with you." -- Frum ·

Carlos Lozada is a deputy national editor at The Washington Post