news archive
January 2010
Posted 01.10.10: From a review of John Yoo's Crisis and Command by Jack Rakove in Sunday's Washington Post: "Given Yoo's strong conservatism, it would be easy for liberals to dismiss Crisis and Command as one more venture in a hackneyed debate. That would be a big mistake. True to form, Yoo does use his two brief final chapters to defend the George W. Bush legacy and drive progressives nuts with the idea that President Obama has some strangely reactionary ideas struggling to control his brain. But the heart of the book is the highly favorable treatment that Yoo extends to five great presidents—all of whom should rank high on any liberal's list of admirable leaders: Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt—followed by a broad survey of the Cold War presidents from Truman through Reagan. This is a deeply serious history of the presidency, sometimes selective in its emphasis, but always provocative and thoughtful."