Customer Reviews

Utter Incompetents: Ego and Ideology in the Age of Bush

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You might suppose from the title that this is just another book bashing the Bush administration and not worth the time or money when there are so many others to choose from, but while the catastrophes in foreign policy and the war in iraq are now well documented by convincing books, Oliphant is not content to retrace now well worn trails. He brings new information and background to the entire range of Bush administration incompetence--health care, environment, education, etc.

This is important to do since voices in Congress are mostly silent on these issues and newspapers with only a few exceptions have been far too restrained in their assessments. What you end up with here is an appreciation for the abysmal failures of this administration even to achieve its own goals because it is forever substituting short term public relations gimmicks for long term solutions. The full dimension of the Bush disaster becomes much clearer is this well written and carefully argued record.

Utter Incompetents, $24.95 Amazon.com, runs three hundred pages. This hardback from Thomas Oliphant is about government and politics, more specifically the Bush Administration and its many failings; a woeful energy policy, the bungled response to Hurricane Katrina, the Iraq War, and the Republican loss of Congress. Oliphant's book is especially potent when investigating the legacy George W. Bush leaves behind.

The book examines the firings of twelve Republican US Attorneys - a political flap attributed to a memo generated by Karl Rove in 2004. These strategic, politically-motivated DOJ firings cost Gonzales his position as Attorney General. Oliphant then reaches back to explain how Bush came to be elected, how he chose his Veep, and the tremendous corporate influence on Bush's Cabinet.

The crux of Oliphant's book is this - George W. Bush's Administration and a Republican-led Congress have damaged the conservative cause. Oliphant intimates Bush blew it when it came to John DiIulio and his `faith based' initiatives. Furthermore, everything Bush has touched has turned into major catastrophe; his presidency is a textbook case of narrow political success squandered by massive governmental failure.

Energy policy was Bush's supposed strength, but his record ranged from dereliction, to inattention, to special interest favoritism. His inaugural year created a price-gouging mess that rages unabated, and electrical brownouts and triple-rate price hikes that occurred in California were the result of fraud and price/supply manipulation. Two-term Presidents are both effective and responsive, or failures; Bush is the latter.

Reforms for the health care system as proposed by President Bush have been astonishingly unrealistic, and only Americans with large incomes would benefit. Representative Rahm Emanuel derided Bush's initiatives for their "absence of appeal to ordinary Americans for whom up-front payments for personal insurance would be an extreme hardship," and stated that Bush "does nothing to expand the number of insured."

Inattention to global warming has also made Bush look weak. The American public has realized that Bush used his presidential power to serve the needs of special interest groups (for example, coal-fired power plants) instead of shoring up conservative environmental principles, and they disapprove of his political subterfuge in these areas. Bush also hobbled the FDA through cronyism and mismanagement.

Despite pledges to funnel $1.7 billion annually to poverty related organizations operated by churches, less than $1 billion was being distributed through religious organizations at the end of Bush's first term. The money given to `faith based' initiatives, however, failed to offset the increase in poverty that occurred throughout Bush's first term. Bush also squandered choice opportunities for comprehensive immigration reform.

In botching the economy and ignoring kitchen table issues, Bush created conditions that lost the G.O.P. control of Congress in 2006. Between 2001 and 2006, corporate profits in the U.S. nearly doubled, while worker's wages dipped 3 percent. And while worker's wages have remained flat, the cost of necessities (daycare, education, electricity, food, gas, health care, and housing) has spiraled.

One topic Bush failed at specifically concerns tax cuts. Bush has absolutely no strategy for rescuing his dear cuts for high-income earners and investors from their 2010 expiration dates. Activist Bruce Bartlett (who served under Reagan and Bush Sr.) attributes growing discontent on the right, to a growing conviction that Bush Junior blew a historic opportunity and hurt the conservative cause.

The great tragedy of the Bush legacy is this - gargantuan deficits. This is indefensible because Bush took office with a projected $5.6 trillion dollar surplus, then squandered it on costly wars (Afghanistan and Iraq), and large tax cuts. Additionally, Bush and his supporters elevated old-fashioned pork barrel spending ($30 billion in 2006 alone) to new highs as the deficit ballooned.

Sadly, Oliphant predicts, the Bush Administration will be remembered mostly for the murderous mess it made in Iraq. Bush will inevitably be held accountable for the botched occupation; also for his myopic refusal to plan for the unforeseen and his inability to make adjustment to the war plan as needed. Every American should take their blinders off and read this important book.

Oliphant was challenged to find an explanation of how one administration could goof with such astonishing regularity - in natural disasters, wars, taxes, energy, health care, and Social Security. Reviewing 16 topics, Oliphant saw patterns of ignored pitfalls, hubris and arrogance, excessive emphasis on short-term politics, ideology, and cronyism.

Bush is at his worst when his policies are patently absurd and become the subject of jokes. Bush's health care proposals provide an example - his tax credits and deductions sound good, but do nothing for those of low income - not only do they not pay enough taxes to benefit adequately to cover their health care costs, even if they did there still is the problem of needing the money up front, not long after the fact the following April 15.

The Bush administration continually cites statistics to "prove" that the economy is booming. On the other hand, a study found that the typical U.S. family is nearly $550/month behind where it was in 2000 after taking into account changes in income, housing, health insurance, and gasoline. (Increased food, preschool, and college costs make things even worse.) Meanwhile, Bush Inc. tries to cover things up by directing official comparisons be based on the end of the last recession, instead of when he took office.

Energy provides another important topic. An early Bush tactic was to oppose states breaking energy contracts provably negotiated with fraudulent terms, support Enron's derivative contracts, place great priority on developing Alaska's North Slope (despite studies showing it would have minimal impact), support new subsidies for energy companies - despite their earning record profits, and ignoring the potential for conservation.

Other topics examined include decision-making to invade Iraq, management of the occupation of Iraq, the Katrina management disaster, failure to take terrorism warnings seriously prior to 9/11, refusal to dialogue with other mid-East nations, and of course, the Justice Dept. under A.G. Gonzales.

Provides a good summary (to-date) of Bush's failings and inept style.

Despite its unnecessarily ungracious title and dust jacket photos, I purchased UTTER INCOMPETENTS with cautious enthusiasm. Seeing Tom Oliphant's name on the cover, I immediately saw the book's physically unimposing but sprightly author on the TV screen of my mind's eye - wire-rimmed glasses in place, intentionally anachronistic bow tie neatly resting beneath his chin - opining with his cautious phrasing and sly humor on the politics of the day. Ah-h-h, I thought, 250 - 300 pages of Mr. Oliphant's gentle wit and well-tempered wisdom.

While UTTER INCOMPETENTS is not without its merits, this book is regrettably rather less than I expected it to be. Mr. Oliphant sets out with the best of intentions. All Presidents have successes and failures, he notes, but in the seven years to-date of the Bush II Administration, how has it been possible to have almost nothing but failures? How could a President turn every opportunity into disaster, every disaster into sheer chaos and even death, every small victory into ignominious defeat? What do all these failures have in common, either systemically or from the nature of the personalities involved?

From the start, the author singles out his main causes: "...tight ruling circles; a strong penchant for insularity and secretiveness; intense ideological motivation with a strong mixture of hubris; strong ties to demanding interest group supporters; and an obvious backseat for the habits of traditional policymaking that emphasize transparency and the give-and-take of consensus-building compromise" (page 21). Oliphant adds three more factors later, unwillingness to compromise, excessive cronyism, and the repeated choosing of actions that maximize short-term political gains at the expense of longer-term objectives. Invariably, reality ultimately overtakes the misleading statements from the political short-term and leads to squandered opportunity and systemic distrust and citizen disapproval, reflected in President Bush's steady decline five-year decline in approval ratings.

The remaining 90% of the book consists entirely of recaps of various Bush failures. Oliphant runs them off chapter-by-chapter as though from a punch list: oil prices, environmental protection, health care, global warming, immigration, the economy and deficits, taxes, Social Security privatization, gay marriage, Katrina, Terry Schiavo, and anything and everything associated with Iraq and terrorism. Unfortunately, each example consists mostly of recapping the events themselves, with occasional but far-too-superficial references back to his causative factors - the closed bubble of advisors, the hubris and ideological inflexibility, the stubborn resistance to changing course. In one of his best lines, Oliphant observes that Presidents must recognize "at their level of responsibility the most navigable distance between two points is rarely a straight line."

In the end, UTTER INCOMPETENTS represents an entertaining compendium of the trials and tribulations of George Bush's Presidency, but little else. Oliphant introduces no new information regarding these events, nothing that couldn't be found from a little Internet searching and back issues of newsweeklies, newspapers, and a few political journals. There are no surprising facts garnered from personal, insider interviews, no journalistic legwork, no confidential sources. Instead, Mr. Oliphant delivers a catalog of events and failed policies wrapped loosely around the simple and not overly insightful premise that they share in common the isolation, ideologically-driven certitudes, and gross incompetence of a few individuals who took valued political power over the best interests of a country and its people. Combine these factors with a Republican-controlled Congress that shared this vision of political power and abandoned its Constitutional role as a check and balance on Executive Branch power, and you have the shambles that now constitutes the Bush II Presidency.

Tom Oliphant's prose reads easily, and his recaps of events and issues are concise and on point. As a refresher of what the years since 2000 have wrought, UTTER INCOMPETENTS is an entertaining and competent compendium. As an analysis of how and why, it is less so. Already well informed readers will likely have the reaction, "Been there. Done that." On balance, three stars for a book that could have been much deeper, much more thoughtful and analytical from someone who ostensibly makes a living doing just that.

Oliphant hits the nail on the head. To say I'm not a Bush supporter is an understatement. Now I more clearly understand why. Bush supporters will hold this book in disdain precisely it is so true. For all of "W's" failings it would be charitable to have pity on him. And also on our nation for having him as our president. Oliphant mentions that Bush reads 100 books a year. I'm suprised he can color that fast. This is a frightening, but revealing read.

I consider this book to be extremely important in addition to being extremely well written.

I didn't think I had any illusions about the Bush administration before I read this book. I thought I had a fairly good idea of just how incopentent they've been but it turns out I'd been giving them too much credit.

This book presents a well written, accurate, and devastating picture of an administration who has done great harm to our country on many fronts (economic, military, strategic, civil...).

In the world of books about politics I'm a bit of a junkie. I have an incredible weakness for good political commentary. This book is one of the most important I've read in awhile....others are: "Fiasco", "The Greatest Story Ever Sold", and "State of Denial".

Thomas Oliphant is not my favorite Columnists and I will tell you why. On the Sunday morning talk shows during much of GW Bush's two terms in office, he was there carefully "hee-ing and hawing," parsing his words to avoid at all cost the obvious: use of the "I"-word in describing Bush. Now, just as Bush is about to return back safely to Crawford Texas where he can resume cutting wood with his chain saw, Oliphant unloads on him, the "I"-word and all. Now really, how courageous a journalist is that? Would it not have been better to call a spade a spade when it possibly could have made a difference to the state of the nation, say in the run up to Bush's 2004 reelection? Is that not what journalism is for, to tell the truth when it counts? No, like the good liberal he is, Oliphant didn't use the "I-word" then when it would have made a difference, better to continue playing the role of "drive-by" opposition: Snipe at Bush's incompetence from the shadows until all the damage to the nation is done, and then unload with all four barrels, when Bush has tucked his tail and run back to the lone star state, right?

Read carefully, this book defines clearly what the job of a good liberal is and why we are in the mess we are in today. The problem is, we do not have a true opposition party and thus we are not a true two party democracy, but a "one party" Republican banana republic. We are a "one party" nation, because like Barack Obama is demonstrating today, the democrats are just "Republicans lite;" republicans without the complete frontal lobotomy, republican without guts, in other words, guilty spineless republicans. White (and now mulatto or Oreo) democrats want exactly the same thing as the most Neanderthal of white republicans do, they just lack the courage to say so publicly. At least that is what this book proves.

In the subtext of this "valentine for liberals," all Mr. Oliphant has done is prove that Americans don't "give a care" about the competence of their presidents. After all they elected Ronald Reagan and his Vice President, Bush I, lived under Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, and re-elected G.W Bush. At the same time, rather incredibly they attempted to impeach the only and most brilliant and most competent president in our history, William Jefferson Clinton. If that is not proof that competence is irrelevant then I don't know what is. And as the author himself notes so carefully, Bush II had no less than five CEOs running key aspects of his administration. So there is no need (once the cow is out of the barn) to regurgitate chapter and verse of the long list of Bush screw-ups. We are well aware of them as we will be paying for them and trying to dig our way out of them, for at least the next two generations.

So if American politics is not about competent governance on either side of the political divide, then indeed what is it about? The author did skim the surface of it as he tried to paint GW into the "ideological and ego" corner of American politics, all by himself, as if he and Cheney were some kind of "Ideological Lone Rangers." But it is not just republicans who are steeped in ideological politics. Americans of all stripes are steeped in this rut, as Oliphant well knows. And why is this so. Why has ideology become so important in American politics? I believe it is so primarily because ideology provides a passive-aggressive cover, a relative safe haven from being exposed for harboring all kinds of devious personal mean-spirited politically ignorant thoughts, ideas, and disrespectful nonsense that makes up legitimate American culture. It is ideology that provides the top cover for the slime that floats in America's legitimate cultural swamps, sewers and cesspools. Only ideology allows such filth to rise to the surface and near the level of respectability, such notions as racism, sexism, homophobia, and all manner of religious and anti-science nonsense. Without this top cover, without this veneer of semi-respectability, we would then have to meet American politics on its own terms, and at eye level, without the banal protective skin-covering of political correctness, the saran wrap of banal political banter that this book represents and that serves to protect us from ourselves. We would be forced to focus on what floats in the swiftly moving American undercurrents, which is really where American politics have always lived.

Oliphant tells us here that Republican think clearly and are single-minded while democrats are more fuzzy thinkers, cogitating, deliberating, negotiating and debating all of the important but complicated issues of the day. This author would have us believe that only republicans have vile and negative thoughts, that to a man, all democrats are high-minded, and only concerned with efficiently functioning government, while republicans are all low-minded Neanderthals concerned only with waiting to hear the proper spin with the code words containing all of the hidden meanings and hidden agendas of returning American to its halcyon pre-Civil War days. The truth is that without the republican Neanderthals running interference for them, democrats and liberals would have to do this job for themselves. As it stands, Oliphant (and other liberals) gets to hide in the shadows while Bush and Palin, and Rush Limbaugh do his dirty work for them, and then once they all have been publicly chastised, he can then safely claim them to all be incompetent Neanderthals. But what he doesn't say is that the content of the respective mindsets of both white liberals and white conservatives are at bottom, exactly the same. Both sides are hiding the same sacred set of secret family jewels: a bankrupt brand of Americanism that goes all the way back to the way this nation was founded. This is the real reason there is only one party because the ideals which make Americans, Americans are hidden behind the banal empty veneer of respectability called "substantive politics." They are hidden behind the pretty words of the Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence, etc., when in fact what really matters floats beneath: below in the cesspool of the emotional and ideological undercurrents.

By pretending that Bush's incompetence is the problem and not the ideology that has historically framed American politics, Oliphant is just playing out his assigned role as the knee-jerk, "drive-by," liberal opposition sniper. Here banality is used like a sniper's rifle with a liberal silver bullet in the firing chamber, but packaged always as serious substance. The author knows as I know that the American republic is in serious trouble when the likes of Sarah Palin rises to the top of the heap. And as incompetent as she is, it too is not about her incompetence either, but about the fact that she is a condensation symbol of the cesspool that lies below. She too is a "code word Artist." We understand her clearly even when everything she says is garbled and even when she is barely literate. We know that she is the standard bearer of the "good old fashion American religion."

We are all whistling past the graveyard of American Fascism and Oliphant knows it but again he is too scared, and too busy playing loyal "liberal" opposition, to notice. Two stars.

This is a thoughtful review of the mistakes in management by the Bush Administration, with each chapter focusing on one issue or event in fair chronological order. Readers can see the common links or characteristics in each example; and analyze the compound effects of these behaviors, as they weakened the public trust. It should be a primer for candidates who need to realize that governing takes a different skill set that electioneering.

We've heard it all before, most of it for years, but Tom Oliphant sheds a fresh if not interesting perspective on the failings of the Bush years.

I voted for this guy twice. This book makes me stop and wonder why ? Far be it for me to slam the president of the USA - BUT - this book makes you wonder if he has all the facuties necessary to be president of the local YMCA. It will make you think hard about the next election

Good Buy

Z