Karen Hughes describes herself as a young girl who asked too many questions, was loud, willful, somewhat rebellious, impatient,
and had to learn to control her temper. She admits she still has to work on her temper. At the same time, Hughes says she has always considered herself a normal person leading a normal life, with a normal family and friends. However, Hughes’ entire premise in Ten Minutes from Normal, strains credibility.
Hughes, who left the White House to move back home to Texas, was recently appointed undersecretary of State for public diplomacy after resigning her job as counselor to the
President during the summer of 2002 and rejoining his reelection campaign as an advisor. She is back in Washington, D.C.
It is important to Hughes that we think she is a normal person. She uses the word “normal” dozens times throughout her book in many different ways. Hughes also wants her readers to see President Bush and his supporters without flaws or shortcomings, which makes very important people in our country’s
political life appear rather one-dimensional. Is it naiveté or ambition that propels her into opportunities that are also in conflict with her role as wife and mother? Karen Hughes has made a career of public relations and putting a positive spin on whatever topic is at hand, whether it is a presidential campaign, the President’s image, the United State’s image abroad or her latest career move. It seems unlikely she is naive. Hughes wants to tell us what normal is. It is up to the reader to decide if her definition works.
Hughes was born in Paris and lived in five homes in the United States, Europe and South America by the time she was in the third grade. Her father was an officer in the Army, retiring as a major general. She attended Southern Methodist University in Texas switching from an English major to broadcast journalism. She writes about her early years in broadcast journalism and the relentless hours she spent focused on her career. When she makes the move to politics, she is either naïve or too focused on the new opportunities to realize her error in thinking that her life would be more manageable.
When Hughes writes about her marriage, she mentions how relieved her husband was to share his duties as a single-parent and that he was especially happy to have someone to share the grocery shopping duties he had disliked immensely when he was single. Yet her family practically disappears for most of the book while Hughes shares her experience with the candidate, the Bush family and other politicos, staff, Cabinet members, press and professionals she encountered during her work campaigning for George W. Bush as governor of Texas, as President and serving as his counselor in the White House.
For some reason, Hughes is compelled to list the name of every single person she worked with during this part of her career. For a reader who is not knowledgeable about Texas politics or less prominent people in national politics or government, the name-dropping gets in the way. When her husband is mentioned later in the book, it is to report that he has become practically a single parent again with the added frustration of having to scale down his professional life to accommodate his wife’s commitments.
Hughes’ book is interesting for its insider view of politics. She has a wry sense of humor and openly shares her religious beliefs early in the book. If Hughes has a flaw, it is her blind-sided optimism that allows her to see the upside in every opportunity, the potential to be a super person, and the confidence to tackle any task without taking into account the personal tolls such ambition can require.