Recommended Reading

BO declined to mark the fall of the Berlin Wall.
In part I believe he is still peeved that he was not allowed to speak at the Brandenberg Gate during the campaign.  I also believe he is so dense that he is upset that Germans did not vote for him in '08.

I also think that, in large part, he believes the Fall as a tragedy, that he believes the Soviet Union was a great and romantic and utterly worthwhile experiment, undercut by human failings.

If you have been infected by this delusion, I recommend two books, once famous, but now almost forgotten.  Both are by the dissident Russian, Alexander Solzhenitzen:  The Gulag Archipelago and One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich.  Both offer eye-opening accounts of real life in what BO regards as a "worker's paradise."

Moving to domestic policy, we recommend The Shame of the Cities, by Lincoln Steffens.  At over 100 years old, it still resonates.  Its accounts of the rape and pillage of the public fisc by pols of all shapes, sizes and competence bear a remarkable resemblance to the Obama recovery programs.