The New American Story

Bill Bradley's book is a political call to arms that is more interested in substance over style. It's engagingly written. But it's the ideas that are important. At times, listeners might wish they could underline passages to remember them, but otherwise it's easy to pick up the author's thoughts and certainly easy to take in his main point, that an involved, educated citizenry can take back the political process. Michael Prichard's diction is clear and crisp. It has almost a stentorian quality to it but without the stridency that is attached to deep political thoughts. On occasion, Bradley's sentences run longer than even Prichard's practiced lungs, but the pauses are neither distracting nor inappropriate. Prichard doesn't sound at all like Bradley, but that means nothing. Few listeners have any idea what Bradley's voice sounds like, anyway. Again, it's the ideas that count in this book. R.C.G. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

February 19, 2007
He doesn't have an exploratory committee, but the former Democratic senator and one-time presidential hopeful certainly has a platform in this thoughtful policy agenda. Bradley (Time Present, Time Past
) scathingly critiques Republican ideology and presents a liberal-centrist program for change that advances a multilateralist foreign policy, spending cuts (including Pentagon sacred cows) and tax hikes to reduce the deficit. There are also detailed, often far-reaching proposals to shore up (not privatize) Social Security and reform private pensions, health care, education and energy policy. His insightful account of the politics of Republican ascendancy and Democratic eclipse in recent decades is coupled with a cogent call for Democrats to "abandon the star system" of celebrity candidates (take that, Hillary and Barack!), develop a coherent governing philosophy and rebuild the party from the grass roots. Bradley's proposals range from the bold—free college tuition for the top third of every high-school class—to the niggling—"Ban trans fats." He loses his nerve on health care, as he won't unequivocally endorse the "Medicare for all" insurance system he obviously prefers. Still, Bradley puts forward a tough, plainspoken indictment of the Republicans and a vigorous and substantive Democratic reform program that deserves to be read and debated.