In these freewheeling conversations with America’s political and cultural leaders, veteran journalists and radio anchors Markos Kounalakis and Peter Laufer ask the critical question: where do we go from here? The answers they get—from environmentalist Bill McKibben, pundit Pat Buchanan, journalist Joe Klein, psychologist Drew Westen, comedian Ahmed Ahmed, Wired magazine editor Chris Anderson, and others—focus on repairing the damage left us by the abject failure of the Bush years.

Markos Kounalakis and Peter Laufer are co-hosts of the nationally-syndicated radio show “Washington Monthly on the Radio”. They are also the authors of a regular feature in Washington Monthly magazine, a leader in political thought and social commentary since 1969.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 2008 Publication

Contact: Beau Friedlander
simnyc@rcn.com
718.576.2573

HOPE IS A TATTERED FLAG
Voices of Reason and Change for the Post-Bush Era

By Washington Monthly’s Markos Kounalakis and Peter Laufer

“Laufer and Kounalakis have pulled down the “ Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here” sign from the portal of the future…. Time after time they blast through the usual ten-second sound bite, interacting with names that are familiar, allowing us to see them in unfamiliar candor. You can’t make stuff up like this. And if you could, why bother? Laufer and Kounalakis have already done all the hard work. And they make it seem like play.”
—From the foreword by Will Durst

Clear prescriptions for post-Bush America by America’s best political minds—left, right, and center.

Whether it’s New Mexico’s Governor Bill Richardson connecting the dots between baseball and Hugo Chavez, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington’s riffing on facelifts and fearlessness, or JFK speechwriter and adviser Theodore Sorenson’s timeless wisdom for wonks, the work collected in Hope Is a Tattered Flag represents a major paradigm shift for politics in America. This is the bellwether entry in 2008’s crowded field of political titles. Here are the most listened-to politicos and pundits, activists and thinkers, along with a few fascinating Americans you will encounter nowhere else, weighing in on what we as a nation need to do after George W. Bush leaves behind the Oval Office and his legacy of bad decisions and squandered opportunities. How do you fix what the Bush administration broke and seize this unique opportunity for growth and prosperity? Here finally are some answers. The dozens of contributors include environmentalist Carl Pope, former presidential hopeful Pat Buchanan, and populist Bill McKibben.

Markos Kounalakis and Peter Laufer are co-hosts of the nationally syndicated radio show “ Washington Monthly on the Radio” (broadcast on XM and Air America affiliates in several major markets). They also write a regular feature in Washington Monthly magazine, a leader in political thought and social commentary since 1969. Previous books include Beyond Spin by Kounalakis and Mission Rejected by Laufer.

ABOUT THE BOOK: Price and format: cloth $24.95, trade paper $16.96; Pub date: July 2008
ISBN 978-0-9794822-5-0 (HC); ISBN 978-0-9794822-4-3 (TP); Page count: 248