Mo Do taking her first vacuous pot shots at "Assault on Reason"

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/opinions/ci_5997283

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He was so determined to make his new book look weighty, in the this-treatise-belongs-on-the-shelf-betw-een-Plato-and-Cato sense, rather than the double-chin-isn't quite-gone-yet sense, that he did something practically unheard of for a politician: He didn't plaster his picture on the front.

"The Assault on Reason" looks more like the Beatles' White Album than a screed against the tinny Texan who didn't get as many votes in 2000.

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He is so fixed on not seeming like a presidential flirt that he risks coming across as a bit of a righteous tease or a high-minded scold, which is exactly what his book is, a high-minded scolding

skip- (This is Gore talking to Diane Sawyer)
"But while we're focused on, you know, Britney and K-Fed and Anna Nicole Smith and all this stuff, meanwhile, very quietly, our country has been making some very serious mistakes that could be avoided if we the people, including the news media, are involved in a full and vigorous discussion of what our choices are."

I can't believe I ever thought Maureen Dowd was worth reading. If you read the link she pretty much focuses on Al Gore's weight and how much he likes clam dip. She appears completely unaware that this column is exactly what he is talking about in the last quote in the excerpts above.

The Assault on Reason (I'm about a fourth of the way through) is a book that is rich in ideas and dense with history. It is challenging and invigorating and I think that it WILL survive as a major work of Political Science long after we are all gone. It makes Maureen's little exercises look like the mean-spirited, envious diatribes of the media hack/flack that she is.