Yes, when it comes to Bob Woodward’s Rage, (paid link) there are matters to be mad about, such as why didn’t Woodward let us know what he knew regarding Trump downplaying COVID-19’s dangers when he first knew it? And there are basic questions to be asked, such as: why has Woodward’s book been timed for release on roughly the same schedule as several other new books exposing aspects of Trump and his grifts-a-minute administration?
For example, (paid links follow) there’s Michael Cohen’s Disloyal. And there’s Peter Strzok’s Compromised. Or, how about Stephanie Winston Wolkoff’s Melania and Me, etc. Indeed, a long list of tell-mostly-all books has emerged and will keep emerging between now and November and beyond.
Bottom line: Everyone wants to (and will try) make money off the presidential election. Including those who write, publish, and sell books.
One does not write a controversial book overnight and get it past all of the requiste lawyers in a hurry. And publishers, not writers, play most of the key roles in how, where, and when a book gets published and becomes available for distribution. (paid link below)
Rage by Bob Woodward, Simon & Schuster.
Another bottom line: What if the combined impact of these books, including (paid link) Rage, helps limit the Trump presidency to one term–or less?
If Woodward had released his information a lot earlier, what if it had gotten lost under six or ten other controversies and banner headlines regard the Trump Administration and COVID-19? Republicans would have done a full-court press on damage control and offered full-throated denials. How many lives would have been saved by a squashed disclosure buried under their avalanche of disinformation and what-about-isms? Yes, many lives needlessly have been lost, and Trump deserves much of the blame–him, the Republican Party, and all of Trump’s mask-rejecting, social-distance-rejecting, vaccine-disparging cult followers. Meanwhile, our political attention spans are on full alert now. We are angry and ready to act.
You’re free to rage at Bob Woodward’s Rage. (Yep, another paid link). But rage also that our entire political system is now drowning 20,000 leagues deep under a sea of dark money, and just about everyone (in power or not) is wanting to reach into that vast money bag and grab a few coins.
—Si Dunn
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