Michael Gerson, who worked with George W. Bush on his most inspiring speeches, is considered by many Democrats and Republicans to be the most influential White House speechwriter since the Kennedy administration. He was also more than a speechwriter, he was a trusted insider who helped shape policy.

In Heroic Conservatism Gerson uses his own experiences in the upper tier of the Bush White House to show why America needs a conservatism that is heroic in its aspirations—including "compassionate conservative" proposals to confront global AIDS, combat poverty in America, and promote human rights and dignity abroad—initiatives that Gerson fought for during his time in government.

Gerson has a unique ability to frame complex issues in a way that both challenges and inspires, and in Heroic Conservatism he delivers a new manifesto for the Republican Party and a fascinating memoir of a history-shaping Presidency.

"On Inauguration Day in 1981, Ronald Reagan stood on the restored west front of the U.S. Capitol and delivered an address intended to signal the end of America's malaise. 'Let us renew our determination, our courage, and our strength,' Reagan told his countrymen. 'We have every right to dream heroic dreams.'

Among those inspired by such words was a studious and unprepossessing high-school..." Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) senior at Westminster Christian Academy in St. Louis. His name was Mike Gerson, and although his first political crush was on Jimmy Carter, he broke — like many evangelical Christians of his generation — with Carter and the Democrats over social issues, particularly abortion. Reagan's call to heroism drew Gerson into the GOP, but his true political love turned out to be another Republican president: George W. Bush.

Before Gerson and Bush ever met, they were thinking alike. As governor of Texas, Bush had begun using the phrase 'compassionate conservatism.' Gerson had worked for Chuck Colson's prison ministries and had written idealistic speeches for a succession of Republicans, including Jack Kemp, Bob Dole and former Indiana Sen. Dan Coats. On his initial trip to Austin, Gerson jotted down his goals, including helping the GOP articulate a message of social justice. In their first meeting, in April 1999, Bush's best and worst qualities — his infectious optimism as well as his maddening cockiness — were on display: This isn't a job interview, he told Gerson. I want you to write my announcement speech, my acceptance speech at the Republican convention and my inaugural address.

The shy, 35-year-old wordsmith was so nervous before the meeting that Bush's security detail feared he was having heart failure. Gerson did suffer a heart attack six years later; by then he was chief White House speechwriter and had overseen the drafting of all the speeches Bush mentioned, and many more. While recovering, he worked on Bush's second inaugural.

Not content to be a ghostwriter, Gerson was also a senior policy adviser to the president. After leaving the White House in mid-2006, he joined the Council on Foreign Relations and became a columnist for The Washington Post. He has now written a book that does more than defend himself and Bush. He is trying to guide his party on a post-Bush path. As Gerson sees it, the GOP won't have much of a future unless it follows the biblical enjoinder to care for those most in need.

'Heroic Conservatism' opens in sub-Saharan Africa with a description of people who are alive today because of Bush's efforts to battle HIV/AIDS. This tableau represents America's greatness in action, Gerson believes. He has little patience for small government conservatives who don't agree, or for pacifist liberals who use the example of Iraq to dismiss the Bush Doctrine as messianic. And just what is that doctrine?

'After five eventful years in the West Wing, I am convinced that the bold use of government to serve human rights and dignity is not only a good thing, but a necessary thing. I believe the security of our country depends on idealism abroad — the promotion of liberty and hope as the alternatives to hatred and bitterness. I believe the unity of our country depends on idealism at home — a determination to care for the weak and vulnerable. ...'

This is 'Heroic Conservatism's mission statement, and it comes with a warning: 'I believe my party ... must carry this message of idealism and courage to a tired nation in a pivotal moment,' Gerson says, 'or face a severe judgment of history.'

All this is presented as a 'new manifesto for the Republican Party.' Gerson does not seem to notice that many conservatives believe that the obvious lesson of the Bush presidency is that America needs fewer manifestos from the White House. Instead, they long for a president who understands the limitations of soaring rhetoric, the limitations of America's vast military arsenal, even the limitations of altruism.

They pine for Ronald Reagan.

When Reagan was president, movement conservatives spent a lot of time obsessing about turf battles within the White House. The much-maligned 'pragmatists' were on one side, pitted against the supposedly pure Reaganauts whose battle cry was, 'Let Reagan be Reagan.' In truth, Reagan was always both things — conservative and pragmatic — and letting Reagan really be Reagan meant helping a chief executive pursue conservative ideals in attainable ways. When the Marines' mission in Lebanon went horribly wrong, Reagan brought them home. The current administration has invoked that episode as an example of why it is important for the United States to stay the course even when the going gets tough abroad. The lesson Reagan and his team derived was that they should never have sent Marines to the Mideast in the first place.

In 'Heroic Conservatism,' Gerson lauds Reagan for his rhetoric, but not for his realism. He praises Reagan's 'evil empire' speech, for instance, and tells how Soviet political prisoners drew inspiration from it. He does not mention that George W. Bush failed to get Social Security changes, while Reagan succeeded (despite facing a Congress with more Democrats than during Bush's tenure).

In fact, a subtle umbrage toward Reaganism seeps, perhaps unconsciously, from this book. Gerson never says why — indeed, he never admits such heresy directly — but eventually the reason reveals itself: Gerson doesn't have much truck with the government-is-the-problem wing of his party, a libertarian branch Reagan courted. Gerson cites only a handful of offenders by name. They include Hoover Institution economist Martin C. Anderson, who urged Bush to make the GOP plank more agnostic on abortion; Grover Norquist, who sought to stitch the Reagan coalition back together by defining conservatism as the 'leave us alone' coalition; and former House majority leader Dick Armey, who thought 'faith-based' initiatives sounded like a Democratic idea.

Being a Democratic idea is not, to Gerson, much of an insult. He finds today's party identifications artificial and the labels 'conservative' and 'liberal' insufficient. The world leader he lauds most (other than Bush) is Bono, and his admiration for Catholic social thought is so deep he feels the need to let readers know that doctrinal differences prevent his conversion from evangelical Protestantism. Translating such ecumenism into partisan politics is trickier; Gerson, who energetically uses the word 'evil,' believes the fundamental divide in America is between 'moralists' and 'relativists.' The future coalition he has in mind consists of religious conservatives who take seriously the Christian's duty to the poor, plus the non-pacifist wing of the Democratic Party.

If this book were offered as a rebuttal to the atheist polemics topping best-seller lists, it would be more persuasive. But Gerson is making a political call to action, and not just on AIDS. He is also making the case for the wisdom (and the continuation) of military action in Iraq. Bush insists that Iraqis want freedom as much as Americans do, and that are they entitled to it. In so saying, he is very much in step with Reagan — and with Thomas Jefferson, for that matter. But does the Declaration of Independence obligate Americans to institute democracy in Iraq (or China, or North Korea) at the point of a gun? That is a harder sell.

Moreover, if Bush is right about this moral imperative, his obligation to plan the war correctly and prosecute it successfully is all the greater. And here is the problem with faith-based politics: Politics, as Bismarck said, is the art of the possible. Faith is nearly the opposite proposition: Faith, as St. Paul put it, is 'the evidence of things not seen.' And the central question raised by seven years of Bush's noble hopes and Gerson's lofty rhetoric about moralists and relativists is this: What happened to Republican realists?

Carl M. Cannon is the co-author, along with Lou Cannon, of 'Reagan's Disciple: George W. Bush's Troubled Quest for a Presidential Legacy.'"

Reviewed by Carl M. Cannon, Washington Post Book World (Copyright 2006 Washington Post Book World Service/Washington Post Writers Group)
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A "Washington Post" and "Newsweek" columnist and influential speechwriter, Gerson offers a blueprint for the future of the Republican party and an insider account of the historic events of the Bush years.

Michael Gerson, who worked with George W. Bush on his most inspiring speeches, is considered by many Democrats and Republicans to be the most influential White House speechwriter since the Kennedy administration. He was also more than a speechwriter, he was a trusted insider who helped shape policy.

In Heroic Conservatism Gerson uses his own experiences in the upper tier of the Bush White House to show why America needs a conservatism that is heroic in its aspirations--including compassionate conservative proposals to confront global AIDS, combat poverty in America, and promote human rights and dignity abroad--initiatives that Gerson fought for during his time in government.

Gerson has a unique ability to frame complex issues in a way that both challenges and inspires, and in Heroic Conservatism he delivers a new manifesto for the Republican Party and a fascinating memoir of a history-shaping Presidency.