BuzzFlash Reviews

BUZZFLASH REVIEWS

THOM HARTMANN'S "INDEPENDENT THINKER" REVIEW OF THE MONTH
Reviewed by Thom Hartmann

Given this point in the election cycle, the title of this book is easily misunderstood as having to do with the challenges Barack Obama faces in becoming president. That's not its topic, however.

Instead, Kuttner assumes (for the purposes of the book) that Obama is already president or has just won the presidency, and shares with him -- and all of us -- the vital and important lessons to be learned from both highly successful transformational presidents (Lincoln, FDR, JFK, LBJ) and Clinton's tragic incompetence at producing true and meaningful transformation while instead settling for political "triangulation."

The stories of the transformational presidents are startling, both in the power of personality these men brought to office and in the similarities of the techniques they used. They were all true to their principles, enlisted the aid of the American public, and were highly pragmatic. They were all committed to true change.

He also explodes a number of myths about these presidents, particularly FDR, who had been elected on a platform that was principally focused on balancing the budget and cutting federal spending.

Kuttner takes on the conservative frames that the government is usually incompetent, that private markets work better, that we're out of resources, that tax cuts are the only thing government can do worth a damn, and that for Democrats to win they need to talk more like Republicans. All are demonstrably false.

He lays out the characteristics both of the times and of Obama himself that make it possible he could be a truly transformational president on the order of a Lincoln or Roosevelt.

And he lays out a series of specific programs and policies -- tried and true, by and large -- that could bring the nation back from the financial, societal, and international disaster 26 years of conservative rule (including Clinton�s) have brought us.

At a mere 200 pages, this is a book you can read in a weekend without difficulty. And yet it'll probably more powerfully transform your understanding of American politics, progressive economics, and the role of leadership in saving a nation than any other book currently in print.

Even should -- G-d forbid -- John McCain win the presidency, this is an important and vital book that all Americans should read, because it lays out a roadmap for progressive change that is now so necessary for our democratic republic to survive.

BuzzFlash Note: We have been offering "Obama's Challenge" for several weeks as a premium, but Thom Hartmann provides another endorsement of a most important book.

THOM HARTMANN'S "INDEPENDENT THINKER" REVIEW OF THE MONTH

Thom Hartmann is a New York Times bestselling Project Censored Award winning author and host of a daily talk show on Air America Radio. You can learn more about Thom Hartmann at Thom Hartmann.com and find out what stations broadcast his program. BuzzFlash highly recommends that you give it a listen.

Here's some of what we included in our previous review material for "Obama's Challenge":

"Obama's Challenge is the fruit of Bob Kuttner's lifetime of engag� reporting, analysis, and advocacy... it is riveting, brilliant, and persuasive. Kuttner, in concise chapters written with great vigor and clarity, shows what the change could look like if Obama is bold enough to go for it and the gods continue to smile on him."

--Hendrik Hertzberg, from his New Yorker blog

In the decades-old movie, "The Candidate," the main character, a winning candidate in California (played by Robert Redford) wins his race, but the film ends with him asking, as we recall, "Now what?"

If progressives believe that electing Barack Obama takes the burden off our backs, we are wrong. In fact, it becomes even more incumbent on us to move our issues forward from the ground up. Obama needs us to support, cajole, and move him forward by moving the society forward. That is one of Robert Kuttner's key messages in this superb book that details a bold progressive agenda. (Actually, isn't being progressive just common sense for succeeding as a national community?)

I was talking with Margo Baldwin, founder and president of the intrepid and feisty Chesea Green Publishing (which specializes in "green" and sustainability books and the exceptional progressive publications). We were lamenting that the right wing publishing world has a well-greased echo chamber of shills pushing their message of greed and war, which consists of endless sleaze books attacking Democratic leaders. Progressive readers don't have the same publicity machine persuading them to buy books that champion their cause, but they also don't proactively rise up and support a progressive marketplace. That's the primary reason that we created the BuzzFlash Progressive Marketplace: to give a destination home to support progressive premiums and progressive causes, including BuzzFlash.

So we asked Margo to write a review of Kuttner's book, given that she was so impressed with it, she chose to publish it. And you can find her review here.

Baldwin writes eloquently of "Obama's Challenge."


BUZZFLASH REVIEWS