 2008-11-18 - Noonan describes change we can believe in
Although I disagree with Noonan on occasion, I always, always like her writing style.
This book described very much the change I would like to see in American politics.
 2008-11-17 - 5 for elegance and good intent, 2 for being blind to reality, a strong 3 overall
I would have gone with a weak four if the book had more substance to it, but ultimately this is a "quickie" book with good intentions and elegant turns of phrase, and I certainly recommend that it be bought and read.
I am estranged moderate Republican utterly livid over the manner in which the "bi-partisan" spoils system allowed Bush-Cheney to destroy America while both Congress and the White House subverted the Constitution.
Hence, when Noonon calls for "bi-partisan" collaboration in the middle of the book, I must immediately put her in the same class as lawyers for organized crime leaders. Democracy in America has been destroyed. The League of Women Voters was pushed out of the debate business so that the Republican-Democratic debate commission could exclude Ralph Nader, Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin, Cynthia McKinny, Gloria La Riva, and the ever so arrogant and hence irrelevant Bob Barr. We are NOT one nation, we are NOT one people, and there is nothing wrong with America that Electoral Reform will not fix. A third of the country's voters have been illegally gerrymandered out of their vote, and another third have been disincentivized by the idiocy of our campaigns.
Here Noonan earns a solid three and moves almost to a weak four when she castigates both Obama and McCain for failing to discuss any serious issues, and especially her pet rock, the electrical grid. While she is right on both counts, this is as substantive as the book gets, everything else is pabulum about bi-partisan singing kumbawah while in fact bi-partisanship is treason--Congress is broken in every possible way at the same time that the Executive is organized for incoherenceand the ONLY thing that will fix (and preserve) the United STATES of America is Electoral Reform--I am providing the text in easy to read format in the first comment below, most from Ralph Nader as refined by me.
To end on a positive note, this book is a cross between Ralph Nader's The Seventeen Traditions and Imagine: What America Could be in the 21st century while completely avoiding the reality depicted in Greg Palast's The Best Democracy Money Can Buy or Senator Tom Coburn's Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders.
NOTE for my regular readers: Amazon has totally hosed up the review system. Fans that come in once a week to catch up and vote on each review are being treated as "campaign voters" and their votes are automatically deleted once they pass some threshhold, perhaps three votes for the same reviewer on the same day. You have to complain. They are also incentivizing negative reviews, and this has encouraged stalkers (whose votes get deleted) but it also peverts the system in that most of my reviews which have three times the positive votes of any other reviewer, now fall below the line because I also have a small segment of negative reviews that are oriented mostly on the premises of the book I am reviewing, not my review (most of which go right up to 1000 words and include 10 links to other books). If you select me as an "Interesting Person" at my profile, this will unbury my reviews when you as an individual visit--otherwise Amazon has sentence me to intellectual death....
Other books on the theme of this book that are better:
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
Doing Democracy
The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World
Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace
The free book online (and at Amazon) with everything this books does not address:
Election 2008: Lipstick on the Pig (Substance of Governance; Legitimate Grievances; Candidates on the Issues; Balanced Budget 101; Call to Arms: Fund We Not Them; Annotated Bibliography)
 2008-11-10 - if she had only read her own book
To read this book in the context of Ms. Noonan's behavior during this election leaves one with a sense of bereavement.
2008-11-08 - Please: Distribute free to all members of Congress!
I am not Peggy Noonan's kind of woman. One of my first political memories is my sense of powerlessness, at 17, that I could not cast my vote against Ms. Noonan's mentor, Ronald Reagan. And I remained a Democrat, an east-coast, Harvard-educated liberal until recently.
I am still a liberal, but I am not a Democrat. Or a Republican. I am an American. Not in the way either party likes to use that term, but in the real, passion, love my country, believe we are, yes, the free-est nation there ever was, governed by laws and principles of right and justice, not by men (or women or politicians). We were and are and, if everyone reads this book, will still be a shining beacon to the world.
I believe that. Do you?
More and more, it seems like we have all--Republican and Democrat alike--lost America in the bickering and negative campaigning and silly partisanship. We are so busy arguing whether to paint the lifeboat blue or red that we cannot see the ship is sinking.
And then along comes Peggy Noonan's little book. A pamphlet, really, in the tradition of Tom Paine: Common Sense. It's not very well written. I picture Ms. Noonan dictating it in a fever of frustration and hope and fear and love for her country. No time to edit: just ship it out. But Ms. Noonan was right. It had to be said, even if it is repetitive and breathy and the editors were all on vacation that month.
We are at a critical juncture in our history: our principles of free conscience and liberty are under attack and we risk losing our world position as the standard-bearer for liberty. We can no longer afford to wonder, "Why can't we just get along?" The time for that has passed: if we are to uphold the freedom that is our birthright, we must put aside the partisanship that has frozen us. We must get along. We must rally around our common beliefs and leave the differences for another day. Our politicians must be brave. They must tell their advisors and funders and radio partisans: "Enough. Don't you understand? We can save America. We must save America. We are a great nation, all of us, but it will take all of us: the Republicans and the Democrats and the Christians and the Harvard-educated East Coast Liberals."
Peggy Noonan has taken the first step. Old line party politician or no, she has said what needed saying. The least you can do, is read it. It may just be the most important book you read this century.
2008-11-06 - Rushton Has Written the Definitive Review!!!
I ordered this book two days before the election based on the Rushton review, which I consider masterful.
It arrived today, the day after the election. I read it in about three hours or so.
As one who did not vote for President-elect Obama, I believe it is a book (more like a long three part essay) which should be ordered for him, his Cabinet, and every member of the House and Senate. Everyone who cares about this country and it's status in the world would profit from reading it, as well.
I am sick and tired of the politics of this country since November 2000. The hatered, the excessive partisanship, the willingness to weaken the country for political advantage are debilitating and dangerous.
We do need change. What kind of change we get will determine our progress as a country and a free people. There is change which can be decorative and insubstantive. Or there is change which can try and lift up our standing as a country that is still capable of doing great things and adhering to the basic role of government.
President Obama is presented with a dangerous world and difficult times. The time for blame is past. If he wants to lead this nation to greatness and a renewed sense of unity, he has that opportunity. If he choses otherwise it will have been a great opportunity squandered and the results can be not only demoralizing, but deadly.
Peggy Noonan speaks from a troubled heart, but with a great love of this country and we would all do well to hear her.
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