Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog

For some reason Zakaria is one of those authors I always miss - is it because he writes for a large mag? Get a blog already, Fareed! I like him though - he can usually see the forest through the trees (as in biofuels and ethanol tariffs).

It's a depressing that we have a president whose lame-duck term is so long. Remember when Clinton would step off of Air Force One in any given country and there would "suddenly" be throngs of jubilant supporters? He always knew how to connect with people, and had an air of "I'm doing the right thing" about him that couldn't be taken away, domestic scandals and bad ink be damned. Bush just can't connect with people that way - it's a combination of negligent policymaking and a rigid ideology. There's also a difference between listening and waiting for your turn to talk. The fact that Bush uttered the phrase "social justice" makes me think that he had the potential to listen (or at least the potential to pander), but squandered it.

It does make me excited about whoever will get the next opportunity to be Prez, they will have a great chance to mend fences. The prospect of sitting through 20 more months of the upcoming political horserace wears me out just thinking about it...

I guess Zakaria doesn't know how to spell Colin Powell.