George W Bushisms

Huckabee and Pawlenty: Identity Politics and Pseudo-Populism

He’ll be missed because he embodied a political persuasion that’s common in American life but rare in America’s political class. This worldview mixes cultural conservatism with economic populism: it’s tax-sensitive without being stridently antigovernment, skeptical of Wall Street as well as Washington, and as concerned about immigration, family breakdown and public morals as it is about the debt ceiling.

This combination of views represents one of the plausible middle grounds in American politics. You can find it in the Republican Party, among the evangelicals and Catholics whose votes made the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush possible. You can find it among independent voters, particularly in what a recent Pew report calls the “disaffected” demographic, whose hostility to big government coexists with anxieties about corporate power and support for redistribution of wealth. And you find it in the Democratic Party as well — from the dwindling ranks of pro-life Catholic liberals to the “Bill Cosby conservatives” in the African-American middle class.

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Of course, his 2008 campaign also reflected populism’s inevitable flaw: a desperate lack of policy substance. Huckabee won votes by talking about issues that the other Republican candidates wouldn’t touch, but his actual agenda was a grab bag of gimmicks and crank ideas.

There are some elements of truth to Ross’ claims about what Huckabee represented and lacked, but these descriptions miss a few important things. When Huckabee’s campaign began, he did lack many specific policy proposals, and the proposals that he did endorse, including the Fair Tax scheme, had no obvious relationship to the economic concerns of the people he claimed to be representing. That is far from the worst failing of the Huckabee campaign. The worst thing about the old Huckabee campaign is that it was mainly an exercise in pseudo-populism based on cultural cues and identity politics that masked Huckabee’s adherence to the main economic policies of the Bush Era.

Huckabee indulged in phony economic populism that was based solely in his class background, and it was this dabbling in working-class identity politics that scared Republican elites as much as anything he had ever done as governor. There was no danger that Huckabee was going to link this identity politics up with any new policies, which was why the hysteria his candidacy provoked was so unfounded, but the slightest hint that an era of Republican political dominance had not much benefited working- and middle-class Americans was so scandalous that it had to be shut down as soon as possible. Huckabee presented himself as someone with a chip on his shoulder, and happily contrasted his biography with that of his more privileged, loathed opponent in Mitt Romney. Huckabee had mastered the art of Republican class and education-based resentment politics well before Palin ever came on the national scene, but he forgot that this sort of resentment politics was not supposed to be used against other Republicans.

George W.Bushisms: The Slate Book of the Accidental Wit and Wisdom ...

With such classics as “i appreciate how hard it is for you to put food on your children” you have to wonder how he became the worlds most powerfull man!!!

Good book which will have you rolling. Did not get five stars simply because it is much shorter than I thought it would be and there is only 1 quote per page – Its not that i thought there would be more quotes (even he cant talk a whole lot more rubbish) but I thought it would be more of a narrative.

Good anyway

I picked this book up while I was on vacation in New York last July. And I must admit, its a hilarious book with plently of linguistic misadventures by Mr. Bush. Whether you are a fan of Bush or not, it doesn’t matter, because this book is accessible to a universal audience! From Washington to Baghdad, this book is the best for people interested in simple political satire!

This Birding Life is a compilation of the best articles from Stephen Moss’ Birdwatch, a column he has written for The Guardian since 1993.

It is nicely arranged thematically rather than chronologically with sections on growing up with birds, Moss’ “local patch”, birding in the UK and birding around the world amongst others. The columns are excellently written in an anecdotal style with some pertinent insights – only the overseas section becomes slightly tiresome with its list of rare sightings. What shines throughout though is Stephen Moss’ quietish passion and decency as well as his way with words.

After Mark Obmascik’s very different The Big Year, this is probably the best book I’ve read about birdwatching and is highly recommended.

An engaging, sincere and enthusiastic account of the author’s life-long passion for birdwatching, as expressed through his columns in the Guardian. A book that is in many was comparable to Simon Barnes’ ‘How to be a Bad Birdwatcher’, this book shows that you can enjoy watching birds anywhere you may happen to be in the world – and makes you want to get outside and see what you can see. The only problem I can see with this book is that it will probably be mostly read by people (such as myself) who are already keen birdwatchers, so there is a sense of preaching to the converted here.

George W. Bushisms, the Slate book of the accidental wit and wisdom of our forty-third president

George W. Bushisms, 2007 Day-to-Day Calendar

George W. Bushisms, the accidental wit and wisdom of our 43rd president : 2006 calendar

George W. Bushisms

The Ultimate George W. Bushisms, Bush at War (with the English Language)