Why Not Me?
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.61 (579 Votes) |
| Asin | : | B000054510 |
| Format Type | : | |
| Number of Pages | : | 234 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-04-19 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
First came Theodore White's The Making of the President, 1960. Then All the President's Men. Now the searing chronicle that will forever change the way we view the man and the office . . . The dramatic rise and dizzying fall of Al Franken, who would become the first Jewish president of the United States.Franken began his unique American journey in the small town of Christhaven, Minnesota, the self-described "son of the son of immigrants and the son of a daughter of a son and daughter of immigrants."Follow the Franken campaign from its infancy as the candidate pledges "to walk the state of New Hampshire, diagonally and then from side to side." As he candidly admits "causing pain in his marriage," then boldly refuses to dignify any questions from the media regarding past, present, or future sexual behavior. Go behind the scenes and meet Team Franken, the candidate's brain trust. Including brother and deputy campaign manager Otto, a recovering sex addict and alcoholic. Campaign manager Norm Ornstein, the think-tank policy wonk who masterminds the single-issue (ATM fees) campaign. Media consultant Dick Morris, who exploits the shocking millennium bug-induced "ATM meltdown" by building an ad campaign around a diabetic woman who loses her right foot after computers erase all her ATM deposits. And former Grizzly Adams star Dan Haggerty. Cheer as Franken stuns the pundits by defeating Al Gore for the Democratic nomination, then is swept into office with a landslide victory over Newt Gingrich. As he chooses an all-Jewish Cabinet because "America doesn't want a Cabinet that looks like America, it wants a Cabinet the President is comfortable with." Then, through excerpts from Bob Woodward's detailed account of the first hundred days, The Void, go inside the Franken White House. Gripped by crisis from day one, the president develops a severe case of chronic fatigue syndrome. After the highly medicated chief executive exhibits a roller coaster of bipolar behavior, including the "slugging Nelson Mandela" incident and an attempt to clone himself, Franken is forced to cooperate with the Joint Congressional Committee on the President's Mood Swings. And when the committee releases Franken's personal diaries to the public, his presidency faces its ultimate crisis.
"Please consider somethinganythingelse." according to Virginia Gilbert. I hate giving bad reviews to books. I think Senator Franken is a funny guy (both before and after he ran for office), but this book was brutally boring and unfunny. It's primarily written as a series of journal entries from Mr. Franken's fictitious successful presidential campaign, but it doesn't in any way develop characters you car about, and there aren't even a series of funny jokes to fall back on. They funniest part of the text are the headlines of newspapers that chronicle his successful bid for . V. Ravindran said The first half of the book was hilarious. As a big fan of Al Franken, perhaps I hold him to too high a standard, but I found that the first half of the book more than lived up to his previous works. The campaign trail and his combination of both clever and ridiculous commentary made the book truly a fun read. I especially loved the extra effort to put in action photos and newspaper headlines, making the whole spectacle of the Franken candidacy seem all the more outrageous.Once in office, I found the book a little lacking. It almost seemed like. "Some things still pertinent" according to Fred Camfield. This novel of political satire by now Senator Al Franken was published in 1999. Looking back from 10 years later, it is interesting to see how things turned out. There are some politcal positions of the "fictional" candidate that still apply and could be quoted, perhaps showing some prescience, such as "America is the world's only remaining superpower, and with that comes some responsibility. We have to remember that the world is still a very dangerous place. Even a single war is one war too many, but
As a writer, Franken takes aim at a lot of targets, with nary a miss; there are enough great jokes in Why Not Me? to make almost anybody break down with a fit of the giggles at some point (especially at pages 132 to 133, but don't peek! It'll spoil the buildup). --Ron Hogan. Then, in his campaign diaries, we follow Franken and his team of advisers--including former Clinton pollster Dick Morris and Dan Haggerty, TV's Grizzly Adams--across New Hampshire and Iowa. Finally, there's "The Void," the behind-the-scenes account by Bob Woodward of Franken's first 100 days in t