Fanatics & Fools: How Politicians are Betraying the American People (Hardcover)

~ Arianna Huffington (Author) "Remember how the Bush administration ambled unassumingly into office, downing Texas-sized helpings of humble pie at every meal?..." (more)
Key Phrases: recall race, car tax, White House, George Bush, President Bush (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Arianna Huffington is a rare breed of political celebrity: an articulate pundit who left the intellectually safe world of criticizing elected officials to try her hand at actually becoming one. While her campaign for Governor of California in the highly unusual 2003 recall election was unsuccessful, the experience has brought valuable insight and perspective to Fanatics and Fools. Huffington, a former supporter of Newt Gingrich, has recently occupied a unique place in the political landscape as she moved away from the right, never quite arrived at the left and dwelled somewhere askew from what is thought of as the center. In this book, she grudgingly endorses the idea of voting with the Democrats in the 2004 presidential election despite grave misgivings about the Democratic Party, which she accuses of too often trying to be a watered-down of the Republicans. But even those Democrats, she feels, are infinitely preferable to the George W. Bush administration with its record of corporate favoritism and patterns of deception leading up to the invasion of Iraq. A section chronicling her experience in campaigning may not seem particularly relevant to people living outside California, but it's a pretty interesting passage. Few skilled opinion makers ever get out and run themselves (imagine George Will or David Broder giving stump speeches), and Huffington brings humor and humility to her account. Her characterization of Arnold Schwarzenegger includes stinging criticisms of his policies but conveys grudging admiration for the actor turned Governor. Her criticisms of Bush and the Republicans are impassioned; well supported, their sheer volume impedes her effort to create a unified message. Still, Huffington's wit and candor, coupled with her recently gained battleground experience, make Fanatics and Fools a terrific read. --John Moe

From Publishers Weekly

Huffington's latest (after the bestselling Pigs at the Trough) gets off to a rocky start with a scattershot attack on the GOP that reads more like a disjointed assemblage of her syndicated columns than a sustained argument. Though she is capable of biting humor, this material all too often emphasizes weak attempts at humor over facts (most of which have already been covered in myriad other anti-Bush books). She takes several cheap shots, at Rush Limbaugh's drug addiction, for instance, and makes a tasteless crack about inducing premature births so the infants can count as campaign donors. As she shifts into discussing her short-lived candidacy in California's gubernatorial recall, however, Huffington gradually acquires gravitas and cohesiveness to such a degree that the second half of the book feels like a different work. Her detailed analysis of a Democratic leadership "in complete denial" is strong, and this is surely one of the few potentially bestselling political critiques this season to grapple with political philosophers like John Rawls and Leo Strauss. With an impassioned call for all Americans to give more than lip service to charitable impulses, and invoking the spirit of Robert Kennedy, Huffington assembles a multi-issue platform on which she hopes liberals and progressives can unite to unseat Bush in November. Capping a decade-long transformation from classic conservative to social progressive, Huffington effectively mounts an assault on both ruling parties and firmly rebukes any who would still challenge the seriousness of her political ambitions.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Miramax; 1 edition (April 14, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401352138
• ISBN-13: 978-1401352134
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #898,426 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Analysis, Poignant Satire, A Great Read, April 22, 2004

By	"boscocjs" (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews

To clarify a few assertions from the Publishers Weekly Review, and other readers' reviews that "Fanatics and Fools" only rehashes other so called "anti-Bush" books, this is true in the sense that there is so much material and research to comb through, analyze, and write about so people understand the unprecedented breadth, severity and sheer quantity of the destructive policies of this administration. Inasmuch as there is an enormous amount for various authors to cover, then yes, it does resemble other anti-bush books in that it, too, dissects the misguided behavior of Bush and Co. Her book differs from others, though, in the clever and laugh-out-loud funny way that this is executed, and also in Huffington's well thought out prescription for Kerry to redefine the debate in this country and offer something better and bigger than the failed democratic campaigns of recent years. In short, if Kerry campaigns on the terms that Rove is trying to lay out and plays defense, he will inspire no one, and will suffer defeat in November. If he offers voters a completely alternative form of leadership, redefined priorities, and a new vision for the country, then he can win by inspiring the 50% of voters who have given up on voting in this country, as opposed to the "tried-and-untrue" failed swing voter strategy that has plagued the democrats and kept them playing Republican-lite for years. (This leads to the central thesis of the "Fools" portion of her work).

And to clarify the so-called "tastelessness" of the joke involving premature babies making campaign contributions, this is a perfect example of how distorted humor can become when taken completely out of context. The section was based on an ACTUAL frequently-asked questions memo sent to fundraisers for the Bush-Cheney `O4 reelection committee that covered every minute detail of campaign laws in order to stretch them as far as possible to allow the most unethical but borderline legal cash-collecting possible. The joke was a hilarious hyperbolic satire and far from being tasteless was a brilliant way to point out the ridiculous lengths the Bush-Cheney campaign has gone to beef up its war chest.

In short, read the book and decide for yourself if it is recycled Bush-bashing and tasteless joke-making or refreshing and educational analysis, with a healthy and strong dose of poignant and hilarious satire that most others are too afraid to write.

62 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Surprisingly Strong Argument for the Defeat of George Bush, April 10, 2004

By	Uncle Elmer "tod3" (USA) - See all my reviews

Arianna Huffington has written a well thought out book that profoundly indicts the current Bush Administration but does so in a way that the most respected political philosophers of today like Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. would be proud.

Basically, Ms. Huffington warns of an America that is so wildly off course due to the detached leadership of George W. Bush that we are getting to a dangerous point in our country's history. She offers the thought that asks how long can the downtrodden be tossed aside before the entire social fabric that hold our society collapses?

Ms. Huffington adds that the amount of people looking for emergency rooms as their health care is increasing at alarming rates. She cites headlines from around the country that note the plight of the working poor and wonders why they are being ignored by our political system.

More importantly, Ms. Huffington calls into question that lack of leadership by the media who've abandoned the task of reporting on how Bush has broken promises to help the poor and children but had rewarded the rich time and again with excessive tax cuts.

Ms. Huffington then calls into question the political rise of Arnold Schwarzenegger and sadly notes that he is nothing but a warmed over George W. Bush who upon taking office made his first action to strip away a cost of living increase for California's poor. She then says that the media has fallen in love with Arnold and is giving him a pass time and again all to the determent of the poor of California as he cuts their social net.

This is a well written book on so many levels that is better than the Franken book as it is less angry and more intellectual. Her book is more of a strategic argument for a new course of action for the Democratic Presidential Candidate of 2004 and the party itself.

In short, this is an excellent political treatise that should be read by all who are looking for a new course for our country.

63 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Populist With A Timely Message, April 23, 2004

By	William Hare (Seattle, Washington) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Arianna Huffington's superbly witty book is particularly significant in view of the fact that she falls into the category of independents that the Democratic Party needs to win back the White House in November. Huffington reveals her epiphany, when Harris Wofford, a former civil rights leader with close ties to Martin Luther King, convinced her in the wake of her criticism that the Americorps program he headed in the Clinton administration deserved her support. Arianna not only reversed course on Americorps, she became an articulate populist who is now one of the most trenchant critics of George W. Bush.

The rationale for Huffington's book is stated in her title, bracketing competing political forces into fanatics and fools. She sharply attacks the Bush administration and the current Republican Party, attaching the label of fanaticism based on what she perceives as destructive policies, 1) in the realm of supporting tax cuts which disproportionately benefit the wealthy at the expense of the rest of America, 2) a jingoistic foreign policy responsible for not only launching a war in Iraq that was unnecessary, but alienating world opinion through a go it alone attitude, 3) shortchanging America's schools, 4) despoiling the environment, 5) leaving America vulnerable to foreign terrorist attack while making bogus claims of making the citizenry safer.

The Republicans are defined as fanatics and the Democrats labeled as fools for failing to mount a cohesive opposition. Huffington delivers a necessary slap in exhorting the troops to shape up after the disastrous 2002 mid-term elections, in which the opposition party failed to provide a clear message and appeared intimidated by boisterous Republican propaganda efforts directed by Karl Rove equating opposition with an absence of patriotism. Speaking as someone with authentic independent credentials of her own, Arianna bluntly tells the Democratic Party leadership that the only way Bush can be defeated is to stir the increasing number of Americans dropping out of the process with a clear and effective message, a concise and sharply articulated alternative to Bush Republicanism. Bush Lite, she argues, will do no more than provide Bush More.

Huffington, who was a candidate in the recent California recall race for governor before dropping out late in the race, provides an intelligent analysis of Arnold Schwarzenegger from the up close perspective of someone who has known him for a long time, becoming acquainted with him initially when the actor supported her ex-husband in his attempt to defeat Senator Dianne Feinstein in a hotly contested 1994 race. She notes that he uses his charm to shield himself from criticism, dodging the tough issues. Despite his "moderate" tag stemming from issues such as abortion and gay adoption, she notes that on the important money issues that really matter to the Republican Party, Schwarzenegger's positions are in lock step with those of Bush, someone for whom he has expressed deep admiration. She notes that in honoring his pledge to repeal the controversial car tax, Schwarzenegger reeked economic wreckage in which the blind, students from middle class families hoping to attend college, and welfare single mothers seeking to bring up families were all deprived of needed funds.

Huffington writes with a penetrating wit, honed as a debater in her college days at Cambridge University. It is understandable why right wing Republicans prefer to keep their distance from her.