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Columbia historian Alan Brinkley today reviews Jacob Weisberg's The Bush Tragedy, which purports to offer a psychological analysis of the liberals' favorite bête noir president.

In his opening paragraph Brinkley lets readers know that Weisberg analysis "is not as original or startling as he sometimes claims," that "his explanations of Bush's behavior are highly speculative," and that Weisberg "relies too much on...overworked clichés."

Nevertheless, Brinkley concludes, Weisberg's book is "intelligent and illuminating" and a "mostly peruasive" look at the "man whom many observers have already called the most disastrous president in our history."

In other words, pop psychology is great if in the service of correct politics.

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