The Bushes, an 'American Dynasty'

American Dynasty by Kevin Phillips

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The Bush family has had its eyes on the presidency for three generations. Its business legacy, with roots in the oil industry, stretches back even further. In his new book, commentator Kevin Phillips makes the case for the Bushes as an American dynasty.

"I think it's impossible to deal with the Bushes without thinking of them in a dynastic sense," says Phillips, whose book is called American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush. President George W. Bush was elected eight years after his father left office with many of the same advisers, "the same money and political network," the author says.

Phillips says the current president's grandfather, Sen. Prescott Bush, had presidential ambitions decades earlier. "So we are looking at a family that has had it in mind that they're going to climb this ladder..."