A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the White House

Sorry the election season's over? Charles Osgood gathers the funniest and weirdest moments of post-WWII presidential politics, starting with Harry S. Truman, whom he calls the first sound-bite candidate, and wrapping up with the Bush-Kerry battle of 2004. In between, he takes on high-profile regional races. Norman Dietz reads this collection of quips and flubs with a voice not unlike the ones listeners might have heard on the stump over the years. Listeners who follow politics will find many of the funny lines familiar. Osgood did his research well, but mostly he lets the anecdotes stand on their own, making the book more nostalgia for those who've lived through the campaigns than history or analysis. J.A.S. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

Starred review from April 28, 2008
In this charming anecdotal history, author and CBS Sunday Morning anchor Osgood presents 56 years of quips in presidential campaigning: "Politicians say funny things all the time," writes Osgood, but presidential campaigns bring out "their best-and worst-behavior." Organized chronologically and dedicated to fair time-including commentators, running mates and the occasional third-party candidate-the collection covers many famous quotes (Nixon's "I know winning is a lot more fun," the first Bush's "I'll try to hold my charisma in check," Lloyd Bensen to Dan Qualye: "Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy"), but the real gems are the ones Osgood unearths, which show these larger-than-life historical figures in a fresh-often more intimate-light. They also show that presidential politics has always been in large part a nasty, petty business, even for iconic leaders like Truman, Kennedy and Johnson. Anyone remotely interested in U.S. history or politics will find this an enjoyable tour, and those who want some insight into the current contest will get a quick, quirky lesson from his coverage of the 2000 and 2004 elections. Given the familial Bush tendency to misspeak, readers may detect a slight imbalance in the latter part of the collection; still, Osgood's latest should still have wide appeal.