Carville's jumping on board with Hillary Clinton (“I love her to death”) is a substantive confirmation of my earlier comments when this review was first written. Now that we know there ARE smarter Democrats, i.e. both Senator Obama AND his wife (whose brain and demeanor I love to death–and I am an estranged moderate Republican and Latino), I drop this book to a TWO. See the links below, as well. Huckabee-Obama, with Bloomberg funding Bradley-Collins, a transpartisan cabinet for the people (not to be confused with any actual future cabinet) and a balanced budget online for a national “conversation that matters,” and we have our country back.
Bottom line: Carville is totally consistent with the bi-partisan spoils system and top-down elitist mandates that continue to treat the voters as “marks” whose pockets can be picked. Furthermore, it was Bill Clinton and his brain-dead “Republican” Secretary of Defense and his “travel bug” Secretary of State of no substance, who allowed terrorism to flourish for eight years, in essence setting the stage for the neo-cons to rip off the Nation and take the world from 75 failed states in 2005 to 177 in 2007.
ENOUGH! Both the Clinton and Bush dynasties, and the Democratic and Republican “machines,” need to be BURIED.
I absolutely love to hear James Carville go at it, and I respect Paul Begala. Their book is definitely worth buying and worth reading, and it makes a lot of good points. However, if there were smarter more organized Democrats around, this book would only merit two stars. It gets four when compared to some of the other garbage that is being published with a foreword by Howard Dean and absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
The authors do a fine job of focusing on jobs, health care, oil, and security, but they do it in a glib incoherent way that is not backed up with budget numbers.
Worse, they ignore the only dog-catcher issue around: whether or not everyone's vote counts, and consequently, whether or not this is still a democracy.
This is a book that draws on Op Eds and Google searches, that combines the intellect and wit of two men with a glossy cover, and that provides good read but not much more. This is NOT going to win any votes, nor can it be used by any candidate as a serious guide.
Both the Democrats and the Republicans stink at leadership, and both appear to be completely corrupt and bereft of any grand strategy that is backed up by either a coherent real-world budget or a moral commitment to a coalition cabinet and electoral reform.
This book and its authors are part of the last gasp of the Democratic Party: those that think that with just a little bit more money from George Soros and just a little bit more charm from Bill Clinton, that the Democratic base can beat the Republican base, and go issue on issue. Dream on. As a moderate Republican who is completely disenchanted with the extremist Republicans and actively looking for an alternative, I would suggest that if this is the best the Democrats can do, we may as well all move to Costa Rica.
Running On Empty: How The Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
The World Cafe: Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter
How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, Updated Edition
All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (BK Currents)
A Power Governments Cannot Suppress
The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America
Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil
Rule by Secrecy: The Hidden History That Connects the Trilateral Commission, the Freemasons, and the Great Pyramids
