Scipio

I was pleasantly surprised when I got the new Carville book for Christmas. To disclose, I like him a lot, and I usually appreicate his humorous and insightful take on politics. The book is kinda thin, but it gets right to the point.

Primarily, it's a laundry list of various issues, and how they ought to be approached by Democrats. He runs the gamut from Medicare to international relations, and covers each one systematically. He first identifies the problem, summarizes the Bush solution and why it doesn't work, and then offers an alternative.

The process itself showcases perhaps the single most important point he tries to make with the book: in order for people on the political left to be effective, they need to offer viable policy alternatives. As he says, it's easy to oppose, but difficult to propose. Most of his solutions are good ones on their face. Naturally, he's biased. However, most of the solutions he offers aren't widely discussed or divisise (he has an unusual public financing proposal for elections that nobody is talking about). They aren't solutions that only one party could get behind, or that one side has a particular stake in.

A conservative reader would probably cry foul as Carville dissects some of the positions the White House has taken on issues, but as with books in this field, it's not written for conservatives. So, what are you in for if you read it? You get a broad but shallow discussion of current issues facing the nation. The kinds of issues that a national candidate might want to address. I found it to be an interesting read, and a valuable one, as too few discussions these days really address policy in a meaningful way, and even Carville's broad but shallow approach is welcome.

==============

Has anyone else here read it? If so, what did you think about it?

__________________
"Erections lasting more than 4 hours, though rare, require immediate medical attention."