The Timing of the Tell-All

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s new book provides a behind the scenes look at President Barrack Obama’s administration that is thrilling to political junkies, but harmful to democracy.  While open debate and freedom of speech are hallmarks of a healthy democracy, there is also a place for discretion.  Even frequent Obama critic Senator Marco Rubio acknowledged the negative consequences of publishing a book too soon, saying, “My preference would be that people would refrain from writing these sorts of things until the president is out of office because I think it undermines the ability to conduct foreign policy.”  Gates’s book is neither groundbreaking in its timing nor in its content; it follows a trend of former government officials exposing the inner workings of the administrations they served as the rest of their former team is tasked with continuing to run the country. 

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