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Title: Why Not Me? by AL FRANKEN ISBN: 0-385-33454-0 Publisher: Delta Pub. Date: 08 February, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.89 (107 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Excellent Political Satire
Comment: This is one of the funniest books I've ever read. End of story.
If you liked Franken's "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations", you're going to love "Why Not Me?". It tells the hilarious story of Franken's successful run for the Presidency in 2000, and his subsequent downfall as chief executive. The single issue on which candidate Franken campaigns is one of deep national concern: ATM fees. Once he also proposes lifting the regulations that bar insurance companies from entering the banking business, he finds himself awash in money and other perqs, such as the Geico jet and the MetLife blimp. What makes the whole escapade so funny is the candidate's seemingly genuine belief in the importance of the ATM fee issue, and his obliviousness to the immorality of the insurance companies' largesse. At one point, his campaign manager Norm Orenstein writes him a memo that enumerates the campaign's ``very illegal'', ``illegal'', and ``probably illegal'' activities. Franken eventually gets around to reading the memo several weeks after it is written.
The largest and funniest part of the book is a diary kept by Franken during his campaign for the presidency. The diary is interspersed with memos, speech transcripts, newspaper and magazine articles, and transcripts taken from Sunday news shows. Franken is obviously a studied political junky. His take-offs on commentators like George Will and Sam Donaldson are right on. One very funny aside is a hilarious commercial in which David Brinkley acts as spokesperson for both Archer Daniels Midland and Depends. The book is replete with countless other political references. All in all, a very funny look at our sad political system....
Rating: 5
Summary: Gutbustingly hilarious and poignant too
Comment: This is the third Franken book I've read - I read _Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot_ and _Liars..._ before this 1999 book. In the other two mentioned Al Franken aims his deadpan and dead-aim wit at our nation's crop of so-called conservative (actually reactionary: conservatives want to keep the status quo; Limbaugh, Coulter, O'Reilly et al want to take us back to the good Old Days of the 19th Century) commentators and the politicians for/over whom they slaver.
In _Why Not Me?_, Franken goes to town on the entire American political circus, skewering left right and center. The story of his fictitious campaign for President, landslide election, and brief dysfunctional presidency satirizes anyone who's ever thrown their hat into nomination ring, as well as the corrupt dog and pony show of campaign politics. He takes on not just the politicians themselves - particularly his "rival" for the nomination, Al Gore - but also the pundits, consultants, campaign handlers and groupies, and corporate campaign contributors.
I read _Why Not Me?_ in two sittings, interrupted only by fits of hysterical laughter. Anyone with the slightest interest in American politics needs to read this one - although I should warn you that you may laugh yourself painful.
Rating: 2
Summary: Fun for insiders, dull and obnoxious for others
Comment: This would be the LAST place I would send someone to get a taste of Al Franken. The first half of the book makes the same jokes over and over and over and over again, and throughout, you really need to know a lot of Washington inside stuff to get the jokes. In some ways a sharp expose of our political and media system, and in other ways far, far, far too long with the general feel of a train wreck.
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Title: Oh, the Things I Know!: A Guide to Success, Or, Failing That, Happiness by Al Franken ISBN: 0452284503 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: 25 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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Title: Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot by Al Franken ISBN: 0440508649 Publisher: Dell Pub. Date: 12 January, 1999 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right by Al Franken ISBN: 0525947647 Publisher: E P Dutton Pub. Date: 29 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me! : Daily Affirmations By Stuart Smalley by STUART SMALLEY, AL FRANKEN ISBN: 0440504708 Publisher: DTP Pub. Date: 01 October, 1992 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Naked Pictures of Famous People by Jon Stewart ISBN: 0688171621 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 06 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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