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Title: Fanatics and Fools: The Game Plan for Winning Back America by Arianna Huffington ISBN: 1-4013-5213-8 Publisher: Miramax Pub. Date: 14 April, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.88 (17 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Populist With A Timely Message
Comment: Arianna Huffington's superbly witty book is particularly significant in view of the fact that she falls into the category of independents that the Democratic Party needs to win back the White House in November. Huffington reveals her epiphany, when Harris Wofford, a former civil rights leader with close ties to Martin Luther King, convinced her in the wake of her criticism that the Americorps program he headed in the Clinton administration deserved her support. Arianna not only reversed course on Americorps, she became an articulate populist who is now one of the most trenchant critics of George W. Bush.
The rationale for Huffington's book is stated in her title, bracketing competing political forces into fanatics and fools. She sharply attacks the Bush administration and the current Republican Party, attaching the label of fanaticism based on what she perceives as destructive policies, 1) in the realm of supporting tax cuts which disproportionately benefit the wealthy at the expense of the rest of America, 2) a jingoistic foreign policy responsible for not only launching a war in Iraq that was unnecessary, but alienating world opinion through a go it alone attitude, 3) shortchanging America's schools, 4) despoiling the environment, 5) leaving America vulnerable to foreign terrorist attack while making bogus claims of making the citizenry safer.
The Republicans are defined as fanatics and the Democrats labeled as fools for failing to mount a cohesive opposition. Huffington delivers a necessary slap in exhorting the troops to shape up after the disastrous 2002 mid-term elections, in which the opposition party failed to provide a clear message and appeared intimidated by boisterous Republican propaganda efforts directed by Karl Rove equating opposition with an absence of patriotism. Speaking as someone with authentic independent credentials of her own, Arianna bluntly tells the Democratic Party leadership that the only way Bush can be defeated is to stir the increasing number of Americans dropping out of the process with a clear and effective message, a concise and sharply articulated alternative to Bush Republicanism. Bush Lite, she argues, will do no more than provide Bush More.
Huffington, who was a candidate in the recent California recall race for governor before dropping out late in the race, provides an intelligent analysis of Arnold Schwarzenegger from the up close perspective of someone who has known him for a long time, becoming acquainted with him initially when the actor supported her ex-husband in his attempt to defeat Senator Dianne Feinstein in a hotly contested 1994 race. She notes that he uses his charm to shield himself from criticism, dodging the tough issues. Despite his "moderate" tag stemming from issues such as abortion and gay adoption, she notes that on the important money issues that really matter to the Republican Party, Schwarzenegger's positions are in lock step with those of Bush, someone for whom he has expressed deep admiration. She notes that in honoring his pledge to repeal the controversial car tax, Schwarzenegger reeked economic wreckage in which the blind, students from middle class families hoping to attend college, and welfare single mothers seeking to bring up families were all deprived of needed funds.
Huffington writes with a penetrating wit, honed as a debater in her college days at Cambridge University. It is understandable why right wing Republicans prefer to keep their distance from her.
Rating: 5
Summary: More Than Just Criticism
Comment: Arianna has outdone herself with this book. Unlike other pundits who seem content to choose a party and attack, Huffington takes a bat to the knees of both Democrats and Republicans (and sometimes even Greens). While this is endlessly amusing, especially when combined with Huffington's flair for language and the immense amount of research that has obviously gone into "Fanatics," it was not my favorite part. What I enjoyed the most, and what stuck with me the longest after I put this book down, was the fourth section, Huffington's vision for America.
Maybe Arianna's brief foray into electoral politics woke her up to America's hunger for passion and idealism - she provides an ample dose of both in this book. Her suggestions range from the broad to the specific, and she includes several amazing speeches she suggests John Kerry deliver during his campaign.
On another note, she also provides an enlightening description of her much-talked-about transition from witty, redheaded Republican to witty, redheaded Democrat. Her core values have remained essentially the same, her views on the role of government are what evolved.
This book is a call to action - no matter what your political views (though I imagine it is mostly liberals who will be reading this book) it is impossible not to put down "Fanatics and Fools" and want to do something in this election. That is, in my opinion, what sets this book apart from other Bush-bashing tomes. This is more than an angry polemic, it is a call to action and a plea to the Democratic party to make itself something we can be proud of.
Rating: 1
Summary: Proof Anyone Can Get Into London School of Economics
Comment: I've met the type before: pompous blowhards who let it slip that they've attended the LSE. Well, (setting aside the intellectual sins of the Webbs and other silly fabians) it turns out that LSE will take just about anyone willing to pay full tuition, which is how they subsidize the students they really want to recruit. In return, these rich kids get to blather on forever about that scintillating course on The Rise of the Working Class or some such nonsense they took and which they beleive entitles them to tell you their opinion on any subject, no matter how poorly thought out that opinion is. Ms. Huffington is an exemplar of this sort, and I had only to scan this book at the local bookstore to confirm my opinion that she's another long-winded blather machine, spitting out empty rhetoric and cheap slogans for the zealots who cling to her every idiotic word, hoping they too can appear sophisticated and cosmopolitan even as they get drunk on populist punch. Egads, if we had the kind of populist movement Ms Huffington purports to want, it would make the mob murder of Leo Frank (see Tom Watson, Agrarian Rebel) seem like a garden pic-nic. In fact, Ms. huffington is the mirror image of President Bush - another rich dumb bunny, but she really seems to believe she knows something profound, whereas as least W knows he ain't all that smart. Take a pass on this book and read some Evelyn Waugh.
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Title: Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush by John W. Dean ISBN: 031600023X Publisher: Little, Brown Pub. Date: 06 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: MoveOn's 50 Ways to Love Your Country: How to Find Your Political Voice and Become a Catalyst for Change by Moveon ISBN: 193072229X Publisher: Inner Ocean Publishing Pub. Date: March, 2004 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror by Richard A. Clarke ISBN: 0743260244 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 22 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
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Title: Plan of Attack by Bob Woodward ISBN: 074325547X Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 19 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
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Title: Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America by Molly Ivins, Lou Dubose ISBN: 0375507523 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 23 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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