Political Babble [antikvár]

PrefacePolitics and the fate of mankind are formed by men without ideals and without greatness. Those who have greatness within them do not go in for politics.Albert Camus, Notebooks (1935-1942)I think we're on the road to coming up with answers that I don't think any of us in total feel we have the answers to.Kim Anderson, mayor of Naples, Florida (1991)We know Will Rogers was right in saying that it's easy to be a humorist when you have the entire government working for you. Fumbling verbosity in public life is as old as, well, public life. If there had been taped press conferences and boom microphones to record the verbal inanities and mendacities of Cicero, Louis XIV, and George Washington, this book would likely be of encyclopedic heft. But what exactly is it that reduces political activity to a parade of absurdities? Is it true, as Camus felt, that only those who are least worthy of political leadership aspire to it? Or is it fairer to say^for those who still suspect goodwill in some of our representativesthat "the hardest thing about any political campaign," as Adlai Stevenson said, "is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning"?vi