Still, George W. insists he was not driven by the dreams of the White House, or living up to the deeds of a decorated father. And yet he followed the path: an education that took him from Andover, Yale, and Harvard Business School to the Texas oil patch and the snakepit of a presidential race.

The East educated him, but Texas shaped him. As a schoolboy, he worked summers at a series of jobs. His favorite was selling sporting goods and hardware at a Sears Roebuck ("I was good at it"). Right out of college, sure of himself but not of his ambition, he didn't hold any job for more than a year. At thirty-one, he met Laura Welch and married her within three months. For the next ten years, he jumped between oil and politics.

He addresses the questions that may well decide who becomes the next president: crime, education, abortion, tax and tort reform, and the continuing battle "for the soul" of the Republican Party. He defines what it means to be a "compassionate conservative". He is, by no one's definition, a conventional candidate.

Will George W. Bush become the next president of the United States? A Charge to Keep will help the American public deride.