Max Boot jibber-jabbers in the LA Times:

[struggle4progress]

Los Angeles Times, July 29, 2004

<snip>
Bottom line: Governing is a drag. It involves compromises and trade-offs that, to zealots, always seem to be sellouts. Protest is much more fun. If the partygoers in Boston know what's good for them, they'll have the time of their lives between now and November, hootin' and hollerin' about Bush, and then quietly vote to give the ol' fascist four more years.

http://www.cfr.org/pub7219/max_boot/down_deep_they_love_the_guy.php


Mr. Boot thinks we should all gush with excitement because the current President is so bad that a few critics have actually massed small fortunes discussing the Catastrophe known as our Commander-in-Chief. Angered by The Nation's profits, Boot describes it as a Stalinist rag, ignoring that fact that the magazine was founded well before his birth and has survived him by many decades. If Mr. Boot wishes to worry about Stalin's ghost, most Americans will rightly understand that he is a poor, deluded man suffering hallucinations: less than ten percent of the American public was of voting age when Stalin died, and three-quarters of the American public had not yet been born at that time.

It is difficult not laugh loudly at the irony of the final paragraph: governing, Mr. Boot solemnly informs us, "involves compromises and trade-offs." His ability to compromise, and to negotiate complicated political trade-offs, of course, distinguished Clinton among recent presidents. Similarly, his inability to compromise has distinguished Bush.

At which audience are Mr. Boot's ramblings directed? I cannot see how he will persuade any Democrats with this piece, though I can imagine true believers in the Bush camp must bob their heads and cluck their tongues. Is this simply further evidence that a mind is a terrible thing to lose?

[LondonAmerican]

1. I read that article in the FT the other day

and I had the same reaction. He really does need to put down the crack pipe.