What makes Obama tick? In The Roots of Obama’s Rage,, Dinesh D’Souza aims to provide a framework for understanding the goals and actions of our current President. I recommend the book, but note that there are significant and differing opinions about the book’s central thesis out there, as would certainly be expected. An example is this link to a very critical interview conducted by Jonathan Alter of Newsweek for C-SPAN/BookTV. No matter what you think of the book, Alter does a poor job as critic: he cannot contain himself long enough to listen to the answer to any question posed, and fails to maneuver D’Souza into several obviously planned ‘gotcha’ moments.

I find D’Souza’s thesis compelling, and his research both generous and extensive, but would gladly entertain argument and reasonable debate from a critic who is more coherent and self-controlled than is the senior editor of Newsweek.