I picked up the Rolling Stone (My first in many a year) and read the article. The part that got to me was the  time spent by Jr. being the go-between for his father and the Religious right. The comment in the article (and Im paraphrasing here) that George W. as president , is the aknowledged leader of the Religious right,  I think was very interesting. It also talked about his choice of language in his speeches. Particulary the penchant for biblical phrases and refrenses. I think I will check this book out as well.  (accidental library joke).

Heres a segment from the article for those of you who just can't stomach buying a copy of Rolling Stone:

Religion played a major role in W's victory. How does his relationship to the religious right differ from, say, Reagan's?

In moral terms, Reagan wasn't exactly running the Bluenose Express -- he was the first American president to be married to two different Hollywood movie stars. He knew how to put on a good show when he was talking to the religious right, but there wasn't a whole lot they were going to get out of him. And when it came to Bush's father, the religious right thought he was some guy with striped pants who came from these schools where their fathers had been janitors. They didn't relate to him at all.

George W. is another story. He's a guy who's been born again, who believes in a lot of what the religious right does. He's Reagan quadrupled in terms of his holier-than-thou, I'm-the-Messiah attitude. He sort of fell into national politics serving as his father's representative to the religious right in 1986. It was right around the time that he was finding religion himself -- and the time that fundamentalists and evangelicals, having made their big splash with Reagan, were beginning to institutionalize power within the state Republican parties and a national framework. George W. spent enormous amounts of time with these people, and he learned how to walk the walk and talk the talk. He is able to be so strong with the religious right because he got inside their whole setup. He can figure out how much to give them to get them on his side and keep them under control. For the first time in history, the president of the United States is the acknowledged leader of the religious right.

How has that role shaped his approach to the war on terrorism?

Based on his support among fundamentalists and evangelicals, I would say that a slight majority of the people who voted for him probably believe in Armageddon. After 9/11, that allowed him to think of himself as somebody who has an almost God-accorded role. He sees himself as an anointed leader, and his speeches evoke religious code words: evil, crusade, the ways of Providence, wonder-working power. One biblical scholar who analyzed Bush's speech to the nation on October 7th, 2001, announcing the U.S. attack on Afghanistan, identified a half-dozen veiled borrowings from the Book of Revelation, Isaiah, Matthew and Jeremiah.