Hitchens is wonderfully eloquent, and has a unique way of intellectualizing issues. This is at play in this piece, a harsh but insightful critique on the administration's handling of the financial crisis. It ends a little weak, with a defense of the U.S. military that caught me off guard.

Hitchens is an astute commentator, and this well-reasoned commentary is scathing. I did feel his fawning of the US Military at the end did diminish his argument a little- he seems to be perpetually defending his support of the Iraq War.

This is an insightful opinion piece dealing with a serious subject but weakened by inclusion of irrelevant and ridiculous asides, failure to acknowledge a legitimate need to address liquidity and an overarching and clumsy attempt to appear both clever and erudite. Other than that, I liked it.

I am agreat fan of Vanity Fair, but pehaps not particularly fond of Christopher Hitchens although he does set out a good case for regarding the US as rather less than a democracy. I am among those who see Hitchens' support for the Iraq War fiasco as undermining his credibility.

It speaks to the moment