Every now and then you read a book like this that makes you want to stand up and cheer, and tell all your friends that this is the real McCoy, that Emerson or Emily Dickinson or Samuel Johnson is alive. That's the feeling I have while reading "Just What I Said" again. To see what I mean, consider this. The middle-of-the-road, mediocre, eponymous tennis player and economist Robert Samuelson says in a sap-filled sendup to his kids: "You've got to care more about the election, because it goes to the heart of who we are as a nation. The greatness of the United States is not McDonald's or Microsoft. It's our basic beliefs how how we should govern ourselves."

From long experience reading her columns I shudder when she quotes someone like this, especially the fake Dr. and poseur at the head of the Fed. She never lets them off easy and writes, " The greatness of the US, Mr. Samuelson is precisely
McDonald's and Microsoft. They are the product of how we govern ourselves They are symbols of liberty and democracy. If you tell that to your kids, they actually might come around. These companies identify a consumer need, conceive a product or service to satisfy it, and compete with other producers to deliver the best quality at the lowest price."