Utter Incompetents: Ego and Ideology in the Age of Bush (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: United States, White House, President Bush (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Boston Globe correspondent Oliphant (Praying for Gil Hodges) ably rises to the task of supplying another in a long line of very similar books 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. Though neither flashy nor particularly engrossing, this competent narrative will appeal to readers yearning for one more fix of righteous liberal indignation. (Nov.)
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Review

“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, which tenderizes the meat and makes you want to devour it till you’re sucking the marrow from the bone. Then there’s his voracious appetite, which makes you feel less guilty for sucking the marrow because he’s doing it, too. Now, imagine I had extended the metaphor to include all parts of a feast---the hearty bread, the creamy potatoes, etc.---all served with Tom’s hilarious wit and innate decency. Bon appétit!” ---Al Franken, author of The Truth (with jokes)

“Tom Oliphant is a reporter’s reporter and a writer’s writer---compelling and thorough, eloquent and fair. Throw in a rare wit and wryness, and you have a journalistic original who offers both powerful insight and sweeping narrative. We’re lucky that in this book, he’s chosen to focus on the Bush administration---even if Bush isn’t. Cheney won’t like this story, the real story. Readers will love it.”---Robert M. Shrum, author of No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; 1st edition (November 13, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312360177
• ISBN-13: 978-0312360177
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #548,157 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well worth the time, December 9, 2007

By	Allan H. Clark (Carlsbad, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

34 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thomas Oliphant Thinks George W. Bush Is A Crap-tastic President..., December 26, 2007

By	sfarmer76 "sfarmer76" (Savannah, Georgia USA) - See all my reviews

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.

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very important work if one wants to understand the Bush administration., December 7, 2007

By	Jon (MD USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

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".