Why Fareed Zakaria is like a fireman

Ok, remind me again, why is Fareed Zakaria considered a "public intellectual?"

As Mr. Zakaria sees it, the “economic dysfunctions in America today” are the product not of “deep inefficiencies within the American economy,” but of specific government policies — which could be reformed “quickly and relatively easily” to put the country on a more stable footing. “A set of sensible reforms could be enacted tomorrow,” he says, “to trim wasteful spending and subsidies, increase savings, expand training in science and technology, secure pensions, create a workable immigration process and achieve significant efficiencies in the use of energy” — if only the current political process weren’t crippled by partisanship, special-interest agendas, a sensation-driven media, ideological attack groups and legislative gridlock.

And a pony. I know, I know, he often writes relatively interesting columns in some weekly news magazine (though rarely letting on which side he's on other than sort of indicating he's not with the stupider side). His view on what policies can be reformed "quickly and relatively easily" is both naive and wacky. It's very much on a par with the obnoxious Nextel commercial in which all it takes is a handful of pragmatic doers ("Need clean water, guys?" "Aye." "Easiest job I ever had.") to change the way Washington slowly and painfully operates.