Beyond the admission of an imaginary friend, a swell wife and the tired shtick of the last campaign (SOB - son of a butcher, small businessman, homeschooler, fellow Columbia graduate of Obama, heroes Reagan & Goldwater yadda yadda) WR should not couple playing with his boys as a testosterone fest, wholesome rough housing would have done sufficiently thank you. Seems crass and vulgar on some level. Unfortunately even us reluctant critics are rendered helpless by WR's thanks at the end of the intro, thus he psychologically insulates himself from any rebuff whatsoever. We're all just creativity bashers and do nothing naysayers who make him the better, relentless champion of freedom. The Peter O'Toole character in the Pixar movie, Ratatouille, hits that head on the critic nail in a much grander and illustrative manner . Us wingnut critics only fuel this great monumental passion for less gubmint and lower taxes. Sigh. 
Sound familiar ? The latter's irritant effect in the first chapter as a device after each hagiographic rehash of the aforementioned AuH2O mercifully ends as one quickens the pace about reading how big gubmint has become not only since Obama took office, but even GWB himself now a fair victim on history's shelf. That the education and agricultural departments are expanded without Constitutional regard comes as a shock is only slightly less deafening as the omission of gubmint growth under Reagan is never seriously considered by WR . . . the classic libertarian take about the Cold War and the loss of the Old Right to the likes of Buckley and Goldwater isn't even on Root's intellectual radar. One wonders if he'll mention the unconstitutionality of foreign interventions since Korea. Nope, just that we defend rich nations. At least there's nothing smacking of Bill Kristol or Charles Krauthammer hubris with regard to empire and duty. The Islamo fascist language has quickly been purged from WR's bag of sales tricks since pursuing the LP nomination for prez.
Sound familiar ? Yeah, just a couple dudes with a beer talking big gubmint (Remember the Reason interview in St. Paul?). Only three pages into the intro WR's as a matter a fact routine pops up with " Speaking of government often being the problem . . . " Thus, the discriminating reader is assured no pleasure of an outline or even a basic thesis beyond this rote measurement of government being the problem.
To himself, he hears the critics from the great bureaucracy decrying him as dangerous to their status quo lives. Mix in a curious altruism that only wants to make gubmint 'unimportant' and give power back to the people, via him of course, he who as the 'perfect' qualifications . . . " I'll forever be the butcher's son, a rebel with a meat cleaver, a maverick with a pitch fork, a Las Vegas small businessman with a chip on his shoulder." Thankfully he tells us he's not on a power trip. But still, somewhere there's the reference about the adulation he received decrying the gubmint as worse than the mafia on Politically Incorrect years and years ago . . . ah that rebel meat cleaver guy from Mount Vernon.
Barry's biggest problem with the haughty and presumptuous left and progressives, of course, was his rejection of Civil Rights legislation which painted him as a cold and ruthless defender of property rights rather than human rights. Some defense of this by WR on a libertarian standard might endear him a bit to the hardcore libertarians, but it's simply too hot to touch with WR's light hand. The State's Rights bit just doesn't cut it, it justified too many authoritarian impulses. Barry did get the drug war and gays in the military right.
WR does make some allusions to the Founders and Constitution during this rapid fire introduction but fails to really show any deeper effort to grasp some of the inherent contradictions and proclivities of that time. Only the most cursory handling of what is otherwise just a rather fundamentalist understanding with an evangelical edge. Typical tea partier stuff . . .
On the credit side, Root does extol the virtue of having never taken a government dime or job and rightfully places the small business person and entrepreneur on the pedestal of industry and initiative that the American experience requires. Mind you, the scamdicapper problem will surface soon enough in Wayne's other world.
Chapter 2 (The Libertarian Model) coming next . . .
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