Letters to the Editor
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I'm going to challenge you on this one
I haven't read the book yet, but if past history of your writing is any guide then I would expect that you would stick to your thesis and not wander off. And that is, stay with to the evidence and the logical conclusions and leave aside whatever unknowable and purely speculative such as what Bush "truly believes."
It is hard to believe we can write so many words over such a simple idea, isn't it?
Anyway, whether or not it is germane to your book, I would contest that it is not impossible to know what someone -- particularly someone so visible as Bush -- really believes. I used to believe otherwise, until way back when (2001?) I read Mark Crispin Miller's "Bush Dyslexicon." In that very early work Professor Miller points out that Bush is actually quite an eloquent speaker -- if the topic is something that matters to him such as the death penalty or the need for corporate self-regulation. As soon as he is required to speak on anything he really doesn't give a damn about -- such as education, domestic policy or the environment you get these outrageous verbal gaffes that for the most part the press smooths over for him.
Whatever else he is the man is no actor and armed with only this simplest technique of psychological observation you can see the core of him. I don't think anyone here cares what I think about Bush but I assert that it IS possible to know what is going on in his mind based on objective evidence.