Eliot Weinberger takes on George Bush and his Decision Points for the London Review of Books, opening with Michel Foucault and the question, "What is an author?":
Decision Points holds the same relation to George W. Bush as a line of fashion accessories or a perfume does to the movie star that bears its name; he no doubt served in some advisory capacity. The words themselves have been assembled by Chris Michel (the young speechwriter and devoted acolyte who went to Yale with Bush's daughter Barbara); a freelance editor, Sean Desmond; the staff at Crown Publishing (who reportedly paid $7 million for the book); a team of a dozen researchers; and scores of ‘trusted friends'. Foucault: ‘What difference does it make who is speaking?' ‘The mark of the writer is ... nothing more than the singularity of his absence.’
Visit the London Review of Books to read the article in full. Eliot Weinberger is the author of several books including, for Verso, What Happened Here: Bush Chronicles, What I Heard About Iraq, and Muhammad.