First, the risky New York setting; the dramatis personae on Bush's stage (only Donald Rumsfeld gets Mailer's respect); the great expectations set on the independent players--Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rudoph Giuliani and John McCain; and the political value of stupidity.
Second, the "what it takes" question about Bushes in national politics, and Mailer's take on the "loutish, low" son's struggle with the father who couldn't get himself reelected.
Third, a Mailer summing-up on "what had happened to American politics;" the wounds of the Cold War and the rise of corporations; and the very perishable grace of democracy itself.
Fourth, the prophetic novelist's vision of the coming clash between Republican "crusade and mission" and the Democratic inclination to "do something anemic."
Fifth, John Kerry, the Windsurfer, who learned to navigate the faintest breezes of politics without finding a cause he'd fight and die for. And, finally Mailer's rueful speculation about the route that may have led from Hipdom in the 1950s to Abu Ghraib in a new century.
Or, if you like, listen to an edited 20-minute version of the whole conversation."
http://www.bopnews.com/archives/001381.html#1381
__________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Address AutoComplete - You start. We finish. http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail