Joe O'Neill

President Bush, his brother Jeb and a clutch of local Republicans gathered for a late meal in a private dining room of The Colony Beach & Tennis Resort in Longboat Key, Fla., on the night of Sept. 10, 2001. The mood was light. "He was in great spirits,...

At first light, peeking through a sliver of clear sky on a chilly morning, President Bush's helicopter lifted off from Cincinnati for one final sweep across the most hard-fought states, a fervent seven-city, 17-hour last stand to extend his presidency....

By a dusty road on the ramshackle outskirts of this small city in eastern Africa, out of sight of the highway where safari-bound tourists zip past dense coffee plantations, Daniel Lobaya sits rumpled on a dilapidated couch in his mud-and-stick hovel....

The name made the man. And the man made the most of the name. Over the course of the life of George Walker Bush, his name and all it symbolizes have been defining features. Time and again, opportunity--inextricably linked with being a Bush--knocked,...