The primary focus of the book is on President Obama's policies of transforming American to be more socialistic. ( )

First half of this book was great....informative, insightful, and intriguing. The second half read more like an Economics class textbook. I'm sure that excites some people, but not really me. Overall just an average book, and I expected a little more from Dick Morris. ( )

I already knew about most of the issues in the book, but I learned a lot more about them from the detailed data provided. There were two things that I didn't realize that are appalling.Many corporations have Islam advisory boards to help the company do business according to Sharia law. In the United States, American law should prevail. The book includes specifics about companies and the advisors they use, some of whom are known terrorists.Post-traumatic stress disorder is a major problem for veterans returning from war, which isn't surprising. What is surprising is the Veterans Administration response: the funding and programs for mental illness are negligible compared to the funding and programs for physical problems. Of course, soldiers who have been shot and lost limbs need treatment and rehabilitation but so do soldiers who have been damaged by the stress of war. The best thing about the book is that the authors include action steps. The number and severity of problems can seem so overwhelming that we can become discouraged and think there's nothing we can do. Knowing specific steps to take can help turn this country around. ( )

As this book is a political commentary on current events, I feel obligated to let the reader of this review know my personal political biases: I am a registered independent and consider myself as a classical liberal in the tradition of John Locke, Adam Smith, and Thomas Jefferson. I find myself at times strongly disliking both the Republican and Democratic parties.

I recently received this book as a gift along with Glenn Beck's Common Sense. Of the two, I strongly preferred Morris' book. He does a good job of exposing a number of problems and issues, but he does so at a much greater level of detail than Beck, at least attempting to cite sources and quantify problems with a much greater level of specificity and precision. Morris also includes a number of action items for each chapter (though admittedly many simply consist of "call your congressman and tell him you don't like what's going on.") He tends to point the reader to his website for more information on actions private citizens can take, but unless I'm missing a large portion of the website, these seem pretty few and far between. The last third of Morris' book seems a bit slapdash, with a few additional chapters tacked on that don't seem to fit the work's overall theme (e.g., PTSD in the military and long airline delays). These are assuredly significant problems for those experiencing them, but are they national catastrophes? Morris does turn at times to a slightly conspiratorial presentation style where he baldly states Obama administration sinister goals behind its actions; I would have preferred a clearer delineation between fact and supposition.

I recommend the book, because it's well-written and attempts to engage in good sourcing and elaboration of most of the issues it discusses, but as with any book on contemporary politics, if the reader doesn't already share some of the author's biases, it's largely a waste of time.

Review copyright 2009 J. Andrew Byers ( )

I confess that I was not able to make it through this book. I am a libertarian who is very sympathetic with Morris's main points - that Obama, if he gets his way, will turn the US into a much more socialistic nation a la France and Canada. But I find much of the book a bit too partisan for my tastes.

For instance, Morris goes on for a while about the travesty and bad economic sense of the current bailouts; I couldn't agree more! But Morris lays all of the blame at the feet of the Obama camp... even though Bush was the one who got things rolling! (And on the chapters dealing with how we got into the financial crisis of '08/'09,Morris is quite blatantly careful not to menton that the entire housing bubble started with Bush's zeal for "affordable housing for all."

In other words, democrats and republicans share quite equal blame for the direction we are headed, and I can't take Morris seriously because he only recognizes the guilt of one party. It makes it seem like....he is....partisan with more interest in stumping than analysis.

There are plenty better books out there, like Housing Boom and Bust (Sowell) and Failure of Capitalism (Posner). At least those authors are even-handed and don't seem to have a partisan ax to grind. ( )