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The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad by Fareed Zakaria
Polyarchy by Robert Dahl
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Hey Look! Shiny Objects!
If only the American people were fooled by such tactics, Bush would be set and that landslide that conservatives love to talk about might actually happen. Unfortunately for the Republican party shiny objects won't be enough.
(Sidenote: Man, I love the internet. Meet the Press was on at 10:30 here in the Columbus area, but I didn't have to get up to watch it then. Instead I watched Bush stumble over his talking points at 2pm by watching it online.)
There's not much to say about Bush's first, and probably only, Meet the Press interview performance. It was the usual inability-to-grasp-reality Bush we've seen for the past three years and to expect more would give him too much credit. What we witnessed was a man who had no sense of what happens beyond the bubble that his advisors provide for him. His words were old and repetitive, as even he acknowledged, and his recitation of them was even worse.
"Bush reminds me of the kid who never paid attention during class but crammed the night before and memorized pieces of the material. Then, when he was actually asked the questions he just spews off the bits he memorized, no matter if they are actually applicable or not."
It's sad that the most powerful person in the world is so clueless to how his actions affect the world and that such a large part of the world's opposition to his actions is due in no small part to his very actions.
We need a president who understands how the world works and how members of the international community relate to each other in productive ways. We need a president who understands that a dropping unemployment rate doesn't mean that things are necessarily getting better if the rate is only dropping because people are losing hope and giving up their search for work. We need a president who understands what "bipartisan cooperation" means.