>Perhaps I am reading too much into it, but that seems to be consistent with
>my concept of "puppet presidency" - the president is merely an actor hired
>to announce to the public decisions made by the power elite.
I was fascinated, in an unconvinced sort of way, by Larry Bartels' remarks at the end of his interview with me. He argued that the elite reads low approval ratings in the polls as a sign that the president is in trouble, and so is his agenda. I'm not sure how much of a there is there, but it's probably greater than zero - which contradicts Woj's model of a puppet president. Yes, the power elite wanted the Reagan/Volcker crackdown; I'm not sure they wanted Bush, whoever the power elite is these days. And watching the pundits lately complaining about the hollowness and weakness of the Dems makes me feel that maybe the power elite is ready to retire the Bush agenda but doesn't know what to put in its place. And speaking of the relation between pundits and the power elite, I'm not convinced that the power elite always knows what to think. I fear they read Thomas Friedman books for guidance - I'm not kidding about that.
Doug