There’s not a syllable of policy prescription or specific advice or genuine content; but as we’ve always observed, when it comes to belaboring the obvious, or slinging hackneyed phrases, airy generalities, and all-purpose flatulence, nobody slings it like Secretary Zakaria.

If strategy is on President Obama’s global agenda for hope, Zakaria has the concept down cold:

That’s why strategy is so important, as he explains in stunning detail: Its absence leads to a vacuum:

All too easy indeed. But as they say over in Foggy Bottom, that’s pure Zakaria. You see, what THE SCRAPBOOK values about Secretary Zakaria is that he not only asks all the right questions, but he has all the right answers as well. Take strategy, again. His insights are not just theoretical; he puts the concepts into practice as well–and in such simple, compelling language that Hillary Clinton ought to paste these insights onto her new desk over at State:

If the truth be told, THE SCRAPBOOK was a little saddened by reading “How to Fix the World” since it reminded us, all too uncomfortably, of the truths that the Bush White House routinely ignored. For instance:

Or:

Or even:

So the key to fixing the world, in THE SCRAPBOOK’s estimation, is to marry Senator Clinton’s practical experience to Secretary Zakaria’s wisdom and perspective, and bear in mind that–

No, it’s not. Nor is Zakaria content to leave things vague–“some will say”–when a few choice proposals can make the difference between an increasingly dangerous and complex world, and a world that, while broken, may yet be fixed:

Yes, the world has been seeking a formula for years–decades, even centuries–to usher in an age of stability, prosperity, and dignity. And Fareed Zakaria, in just one phrase, unlocks the secret: A more responsive America, better attuned to the rest of the world.

Why didn’t we think of that?

Dallek Reads the Times!

At a Washington, D.C., screening last week of the movie Frost/Nixon (about the late president’s televised encounter with David Frost), director Ron Howard, James Reston (who worked for Frost), and historian Robert Dallek compared President Nixon to President Bush. Who could resist? According to the Washington Times, Dallek referred to the Bush years as “an imperial presidency. This has, I think, in a sense, made this film and the play so timely, and why it’s really commanding so much attention.”

It is? Chris Wallace took strong exception: “I think to compare what Nixon did, and the abuses of power for pure political self-preservation, to George W. Bush trying to protect this country–even if you disagree with rendition or waterboarding–it seems to me is both a gross misreading of history both then and now.” The host of Fox News Sunday (who received a mix of applause and boos from the audience) concluded, “You’re simply making suppositions based on no facts whatsoever.”

Dallek’s response (as reported in the Washington Post): “Oh come on! You read the New York Times.” We do, too, as well as the Onion–sometimes they’re hard to tell apart.

NPR’s Daniel Schorr, now 92, also used the Frost/Nixon movie to make the Nixon/Bush comparison, and the longtime Nixon foe suggested that Tricky Dick, by apologizing for his illegal behavior, might have achieved higher moral standing than Bush.

The problem, Schorr says, is that Bush lied the country into war in Iraq because he “was determined to find a target for American anger.” This slander doesn’t really deserve a response, but it’s worth reminding Schorr that the United States had already overthrown the Taliban in Afghanistan and killed thousands of al Qaeda terrorists by the time of the Iraq war.

“As he prepares to leave office,” Schorr said, “Mr. Bush might want to look at the Nixon interview and consider doing a do-over. That is reconsidering the wisdom of invading Iraq.”

As long as we’re making suggestions, NPR might want to consider a mandatory retirement policy.

Since it seems to be Nixon week in Washington, THE SCRAPBOOK is reminded of a line spoken by a character in one of Charles McCarry’s great spy novels: “They have made Mr. Nixon stand for evil and they think that all it takes to be virtuous is to hate him. It is the sin of pride.”

Sentences We Didn’t Finish

“This book was born during a pan-Pacific dinner in Seattle in March 2007, with political journalist Michael Kinsley, Patty Stonesifer (Mike’s wife), Susan Rieger (my wife), and me. Somewhere between the Singing Fish Satay and the Pow Wok Lamb, Mike and I, for some reason, said more or less the same thing .  .  . ” (from Snark: It’s Mean, It’s Personal, and It’s Ruining Our Conversation, by David Denby).