One of the most depressing consequences of the polarisation of American politics is that it is turning once excellent writers into partisan hacks. Nobody expects the likes of Ann Coulter or Michael Moore to produce anything other than parti pris piffle. That is their nature-just as it is the nature of dogs to bark and skunks to stink-and you know what you are getting when you hand over your dollar. But Fred Barnes is different. Mr Barnes is a conservative, to be sure. But he is an intelligent and insightful conservative, not a common hack. He is the executive editor of America's most interesting conservative magazine, the Weekly Standard; he is also a compelling political analyst, with a finger on Washington's pulse and an encyclopedic knowledge of American psephology. Which is all a roundabout way of saying that "Rebel-in-Chief" is a disappointment.
展开▼
