| 3. Vidal’s old line ("America doesn’t have politics; it has elections") kept coming to mind as I read Primary Colors. I found myself muttering, "Yes, but…" After Klein, I decided we do have politics, but like our music, our movies, our literature, they don’t fit the Old World mode. What Vidal (and so many Europeans) miss in America is rational discussion of the issues. What kind of politics is it, they say, when George Bush drops ten points in the polls because he glances at his watch during the debate in 1992? What kind of politics indeed. I have no glib, easy answer to that question. If you’ll give Joe Klein your attention for 400 pages, he’ll help you come up with your own answer.
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