Utter Incompetents Ego and Ideology in the Age of Bush [Paperback]

Tom Oliphant is one of the true chroniclers of America. He uses his wit and wisdom to offer critical, insightful, and loving observations of our politics, culture, and society. He is the Will Rogers of our time. ---Madeleine Albright

The collapse of the Bush presidency is a broadly acknowledged fact. By any fair assessment, much of the past seven years has been disastrous. The challenge is to understand why.

From domestic policy to international goofs, from soaring energy prices to the health care crisis---Thomas Oliphant tackles it all, closely inspecting the initial projections and promises of Bush and his key senior of?cials, and the ways in which they lost control of these well-publicized and overcon?dent plans. By comparing their rhetoric to their dismal record, Oliphant provides a historic analysis of the Bush administration---showing how a system so seemingly competent and mechanized could fail so miserably, and with such frequency.Utter Incompetentsis at its heart a searching look at the George W. Bush administration, its policies, and the legacy that it will leave behind on January 20, 2009.

Tom Oliphant is one of the true chroniclers of America. He uses his wit and wisdom to offer critical, insightful, and loving observations of our politics, culture, and society. He is the Will Rogers of our time. Madeleine Albright

Done right, political discourse is a feast. And Tom Oliphant brings more to the table than anyone I know. Al Franken

We're lucky that in this book, [Oliphant's] chosen to focus on the Bush administration---even if Bush isn't. Cheney won't like this story, the real story. Readers will love it. Robert M. Shrum

The book not only teems with detail but also will tell the future historians, long after living memory has faded, just what Bush's contemporary critics thought of the man and his record. St. Louis Post-Dispatch

[T]his competent narrative will appeal to ló-