Nice day

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Thu Mar 25, 2004 11:11 pm

By RACHEL L. SWARNS
WASHINGTON, March 25 â€” On the first day, the hottest new book in town sold out in an hour at Politics and Prose and sales clerks turned away dozens of disappointed buyers. On the second day, the store called three national book wholesalers, which announced they did not have a single copy left.
That was when Barbara Meade knew that Richard A. Clarke, the author of "Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror," was the genuine article, an unexpected literary phenomenon whose account of counterterrorism failures within the Bush administration has been flying off the shelves this week.
"It's reached a point now where if you're going to be in the loop in Washington you probably have to say you've read the book," Ms. Meade, co-owner of Politics and Prose, said, adding that she believed she now has enough copies to last through the weekend.
Mr. Clarke, the Bush administration's former counterterrorism chief, says officials failed to heed warnings about the Sept. 11 attacks and then neglected the threat of Al Qaeda as they turned their attention to Saddam Hussein.
In this city, those incendiary charges are dominating political chatter at breakfast tables, dinner tables and even on the basketball court, where David Sirota, spokesman for the Center for American Progress, discussed it last night after shooting hoops with Congressional workers and former presidential campaign advisers at the Sidwell Friends School.
"It's all that people are talking about," said Jim Jordan, the Democratic strategist, who said he was planning to buy his own copy on Thursday. (New York Times)***I don't pretend to have the pulse of the rabble but I am confident that more people in Washington talked about the weather today than about Clarke's book.***

Rio · **Posted:** Fri Mar 26, 2004 12:00 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by blanp:
***I don't pretend to have the pulse of the rabble but I am confident that more people in Washington talked about the weather today than about Clarke's book.***<hr></blockquote>Of course. But what else would you expect a "Democratic strategist" to say? Or The New York Times to print?

Bolder1 · **Posted:** Sat Mar 27, 2004 12:49 am

Well, she did say the charges were "dominating political chatter," not the pulse of the city in general.We don't pretend to mean "residents of Washington" when we say "Washington," and I daresay neither does the Post.

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Sat Mar 27, 2004 1:03 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Bolder1:
Well, she did say the charges were "dominating political chatter," not the pulse of the city in general.We don't pretend to mean "residents of Washington" when we say "Washington," and I daresay neither does the Post.<hr></blockquote>"It's all that people are talking about," said Jim Jordan, the Democratic strategist, who said he was planning to buy his own copy on Thursday. ***To people like Jim, there is no difference. And I would still entertain bets against my contention that weather talk dominated both universes this week.***[ March 27, 2004: Message edited by: blanp ]

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