Inside Emperor Berlusconi's Reign

'Berlusconi has transformed the political life of a major nation into a kind of reality TV show in which he is star, producer, and network owner: he is the ultimate â??Survivor,â? who will lie and cheat to kick others off the island as well as â??The Bachelor,â? distributing roses to a group of beautiful young women. Consider that Berlusconiâ??s approval ratings are consistently higher than Barack Obamaâ??s. As The Daily Beast pointed out recently, Obamaâ??s TV ratings and poll numbers have gone down in lockstep as his health care legislation has been weakened and unemployment has remained high: â??The fact is he had 49.5 million listeners to [his] first speech on the economy. On Medicare, he had 24 million. Heâ??s lost his audienceâ?¦. He has plunged in the polls.â? Berlusconi, facing public scandals similar to those of Tiger Woods and John Edwards, has kept his audience.

Berlusconi has understood that contemporary politics is a permanent campaign. In the old days, a US president campaigned for six months and governed for three and a half years. Obama rather quaintly followed this old-fashioned model, working largely behind the scenes to promote health care and other legislation, while the Republicans held the stage, claiming that the Democratic plan imposed â??death panelsâ? and socialized medicine. Berlusconi would never have let that happen.

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