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Utter Incompetents: Ego and Ideology in the Age of Bush
“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 Incompetents is 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. Thomas Oliphant has been a correspondent for The Boston Globe since 1968 and its Washington columnist since 1989. He is a native of Brooklyn and a 1967 Harvard graduate. He has been named one of the country's top ten political writers and one of Washington's fifty most influential journalists by The Washingtonian magazine. Mr. Oliphant lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, CBS correspondent Susan Spencer. The collapse of the Bush presidency has been acknowledged by comedians, politicians, and foreign allies and enemies. Failures include the early flop on energy policy, the fallout of Hurricane Katrina, and the ongoing war in Iraq. The challenge, Oliphant says, is to understand why the past seven years have been so disastrous.
Thomas Oliphant attributes the failures of the George W. Bush administration to that President himself. The political team led by a man with an MBA came to Washington with the mission to run the government in an orderly, businesslike manner. Instead, the country has faced domestic policy issues, international goofs, soaring energy prices, and a health care crisis. Leading into the 2008 election year, the Republicans had lost Congress and promises for future change had not been met.
While few analysts have looked beyond the easy hits and quick gibes and analyzed the totality of the Bush Administration, Oliphant seeks to answer the "How could some of the smartest, most experienced and politically savvy people in Washington screw up so badly?" Oliphant inspects the initial projections and promises of Bush and his key senior officials, and the ways in which they lost control of these well-publicized and highly confident plans. By comparing their rhetoric to their record, Oliphant analyzes the Bush administration. His book aims to show how a system so seemingly competent and mechanized could fail. "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 "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. First, the meat. He knows this stuff. Then, there's the delicious insight . . . Then there's his voracious appetite . . . Now, imagine I had extended the metaphor to include all parts of a feast . . . all served with Tom's hilarious wit and innate decency."— Al Franken, author of The Truth (with jokes)
" Boston Globe correspondent Oliphant ably rises to the task of . . . detailing the perfidy of George W. Bush and his administration. Oliphant includes the testimony of disgruntled former insiders such as John DiIulio, the first director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and the first senior Bush adviser to resign, as he recounts the Bush team's hyperpoliticized approach to policy formation and unwillingness to consider information conflicting with their worldview. Saying American history contains few examples of such a pervasive, systemic, persistent record of blunders by a national administration, much less an equally persistent record of a myopic refusal to face the facts, Oliphant sets out to demonstrate how the first president to hold an M.B.A. has managed to bungle nearly every issue he has touched, from Terry Schiavo to the war in Iraq . . . this competent narrative will appeal to readers yearning for one more fix of righteous liberal indignation."— Publishers Weekly
Thomas Oliphant attributes the failures of the George W. Bush administration to that President himself. The political team led by a man with an MBA came to Washington with the mission to run the government in an orderly, businesslike manner. Instead, the country has faced domestic policy issues, international goofs, soaring energy prices, and a health care crisis. Leading into the 2008 election year, the Republicans had lost Congress and promises for future change had not been met.
While few analysts have looked beyond the easy hits and quick gibes and analyzed the totality of the Bush Administration, Oliphant seeks to answer the "How could some of the smartest, most experienced and politically savvy people in Washington screw up so badly?" Oliphant inspects the initial projections and promises of Bush and his key senior officials, and the ways in which they lost control of these well-publicized and highly confident plans. By comparing their rhetoric to their record, Oliphant analyzes the Bush administration. His book aims to show how a system so seemingly competent and mechanized could fail. "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 "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. First, the meat. He knows this stuff. Then, there's the delicious insight . . . Then there's his voracious appetite . . . Now, imagine I had extended the metaphor to include all parts of a feast . . . all served with Tom's hilarious wit and innate decency."— Al Franken, author of The Truth (with jokes)
" Boston Globe correspondent Oliphant ably rises to the task of . . . detailing the perfidy of George W. Bush and his administration. Oliphant includes the testimony of disgruntled former insiders such as John DiIulio, the first director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and the first senior Bush adviser to resign, as he recounts the Bush team's hyperpoliticized approach to policy formation and unwillingness to consider information conflicting with their worldview. Saying American history contains few examples of such a pervasive, systemic, persistent record of blunders by a national administration, much less an equally persistent record of a myopic refusal to face the facts, Oliphant sets out to demonstrate how the first president to hold an M.B.A. has managed to bungle nearly every issue he has touched, from Terry Schiavo to the war in Iraq . . . this competent narrative will appeal to readers yearning for one more fix of righteous liberal indignation."— Publishers Weekly
304 pages, Paperback
First published November 13, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 13, 2016
I am so disgusted with the American voters for taking the Bush family at face value. If more American voters would take the time to learn the history of the politics of the Bush family they would camp out at polling places because they would have learned just how pertinent it is to keep any and all Bushs and/or their relations out of American politics!
From the book
Conservatism is often an inflexible, even radical, ideology that, beginning with Reagan, has had trouble adjusting to the realities and inevitable compromises of responsible governance.
…six months before the 9/11 attacks, Bush took a series of actions and took a pass on several other responses that produced an enormous transfer of wealth and income in the wrong direction and endangered the country’s security.
The same agency that was blocking renegotiation of the power contracts, moreover, had already concluded that at least four major energy firms (including the notorious Enron) had been manipulating conditions in the western markets,…
He failed to see the crisis coming, and bet heavily on the wrong side of the mess to chase the fool’s gold of more production to meet ravenous international demands.
…Dick Cheney…, not only leaving the country weaker and more exposed to dangerous forces but severely injuring the administration’s political standing.
And no businessman had been more closely allied with the Bush family than Enron’s chief executive officer, Kenneth Lay.
…Bush has always been a closet privatizer, anxious to lure insurance companies and investment firms into Medicare as competitors for the healthiest and wealthiest beneficiaries.
Bush’s commitment was to carve out some $8 billion annually for religious groups activities in social causes where before there had been virtually nothing.
To pay for just one young person in a four-year public university, the basic costs shot up 44 percent for the five years after 2000. …now eating up nearly 30 percent of a fully employed male’s earning.
Dick Chaney…used his skill and experience in politics and government to do pretty much what he did to see the invasion of Iraq. He combined a toxic mixture of obfuscation, misdirection brute force, threats, false promises and misleading statements…
If these passages haven’t convince you to read Utter Incompetents and conduct your own research on the presidencies and politics of the Bushs’ then nothing will.
From the book
Conservatism is often an inflexible, even radical, ideology that, beginning with Reagan, has had trouble adjusting to the realities and inevitable compromises of responsible governance.
…six months before the 9/11 attacks, Bush took a series of actions and took a pass on several other responses that produced an enormous transfer of wealth and income in the wrong direction and endangered the country’s security.
The same agency that was blocking renegotiation of the power contracts, moreover, had already concluded that at least four major energy firms (including the notorious Enron) had been manipulating conditions in the western markets,…
He failed to see the crisis coming, and bet heavily on the wrong side of the mess to chase the fool’s gold of more production to meet ravenous international demands.
…Dick Cheney…, not only leaving the country weaker and more exposed to dangerous forces but severely injuring the administration’s political standing.
And no businessman had been more closely allied with the Bush family than Enron’s chief executive officer, Kenneth Lay.
…Bush has always been a closet privatizer, anxious to lure insurance companies and investment firms into Medicare as competitors for the healthiest and wealthiest beneficiaries.
Bush’s commitment was to carve out some $8 billion annually for religious groups activities in social causes where before there had been virtually nothing.
To pay for just one young person in a four-year public university, the basic costs shot up 44 percent for the five years after 2000. …now eating up nearly 30 percent of a fully employed male’s earning.
Dick Chaney…used his skill and experience in politics and government to do pretty much what he did to see the invasion of Iraq. He combined a toxic mixture of obfuscation, misdirection brute force, threats, false promises and misleading statements…
If these passages haven’t convince you to read Utter Incompetents and conduct your own research on the presidencies and politics of the Bushs’ then nothing will.
April 19, 2009
This book demonstrates that you don't need to be a Democrat to disapprove of Bush's tenure in the White House. It covers every major issue Bush & team faced during his presidency, and how his mishandling of all of them alienated not only the Democrats, but also the moderates and many Republicans. Astonishing.
February 5, 2008
Thomas Oliphant does a great job of describing the problems of the Bush administration - Hubris is a great word for what has happened during his term. It is one of the best books on the topic I have read.
January 8, 2009
This book was very satisfying to read. Oliphant does excellent research and has informed opinions. Because there have been so many, one tends to forget how many screw ups (crimes) this administration has perpetrated.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews