May

13

Presidential Candidate Book Challenge Update

Filed Under Democrats, books, presidential candidate book challenge, presidential candidates, republicans | 3 Comments

Challenge buttonHaven’t signed up for the Challenge? Sign up here by leaving a comment!

It turns out that some of the presidential candidates haven’t written any books, while some have written more than I care to read. I’ve collected all the titles I could find, and made them available in my book store. If you don’t see a title you’re looking for, please let me know with a comment, so I can add it.

As for books written about the candidates, I’m not sure where to start with those. Some are obviously inflammatory, and I wonder at the worth of reading them. For example, I’m currently reading The Truth About Hillary by Edward Klein. I find myself taking huge exceptions to the conclusions he draws on many things. I wonder how much I’m learning about Hillary vs. how much I’m learning about Mr. Klein. At one point he says, “She claims to love her husband passionately, but most of her friends and advisers are lesbians.” Um, what? So if you have friends that are lesbians, you can’t love your husband? There are a lot of these odd, overly judgmental statements, which makes me wonder at the veracity of any of his statements.

For now, I have chosen not to include these books in my store. However, they are all fair game for the challenge. The more the merrier!

I hope to be adding books by other current politicians that might offer insight to today’s political climate, but I want to make sure all sides are equally represented, so those will be coming soon.

May

9

Presidential Debates on MSNBC

Filed Under Barack Obama, Bill Richardson, Brian Williams, Chris Dodd, Chris Matthews, Democrat Debate, Democrats, Dennis Kucinich, John Edwards, MSNBC, Mike Gravel, Presidential Debates, Uncategorized, hillary clinton, presidential candidate book challenge, presidential candidates | Leave a Comment

apples and orangesFirst of all, if you haven’t seen the debates, I hope you’ll go to MSNBC and watch them. They’re broken up into short segments, so they’re easy to view. (Although I wish you could rewind.)

I also want to preface this by saying that although I liked Brian Williams and Chris Matthews, I felt that there was obviously more time and questions given to some candidates, and some candidates were clearly ignored. For example, I would have loved to hear more from Fmr. Sen. Mike Gravel on the Democratic Debate.

I would like to say that I’m on the fence, and giving both sides - dem and rep - equal time. But I’m not. I watched the whole Dem. debate, and although I was sick of Iraq and terrorism by the end of it, I was interested in what each one had to say, possibly with the exception of Gov. Bill Richardson. More on that later.

As I started the Republican Debate, I was instanly annoyed with their answers. Then as I moved onto the segment concerning abortion, and they all said, (paraphrasing, of course) “down with Roe v. Wade” - with the exception of a wishy-washy stance from Giuliani, I couldn’t watch anymore. There’s no way I’d vote for any of them.

I will go back and watch because I want to know what they stand for. I will go back and watch because I’m sure they will make good points, have valid ideas, and offer solutions that Democrats will not. But not today.

Here’s my snapshot take on each of the Democratic candidates (links go to their official election sites)…after the jump.

Read more

May

1

Introducing the Presidential Candidate Book Challenge

Filed Under books, presidential candidate book challenge | 7 Comments

Book Challenge ButtonPresidential Candidate Book Challenge runs from May 1, 2007 to Dec. 1, 2007.

I’ve decided to take on all the books of the presidential candidates. Well, at least their autobiographies - if they’ve written one. I want to take a closer look at these people well before the primaries. If you care to join me, leave a comment, and I’ll keep track of participants. I’ll cook up some prizes for things like “Most books read”, and “Most parties represented.”

Audiobooks are allowed. Also, I plan to include other politicians books…Sen. Bill Bradley, Ralph Nader, etc. Any book that is going to give us a better understanding of today’s political climate. Basically, read whatever you want under the heading of politics, and we’ll have a vote on categories for prizes around October. It will be very democratic.

So here are the requirements of the challenge:

  1. Leave a comment saying you’re participating.
  2. Post a link to this post on your blog. Feel free to copy my Challenge button (I made it myself!).
  3. Keep track of the books you’re reading. Even better, if you have time, write blog posts about the books you’re reading and what you think of them. If you do write posts, add this tag: “Presidential Candidate Book Challenge”
  4. On Dec. 1, post a comment with your list of completed books including a short review or rating.

Won’t we all be so informed?! Here’s hoping…now sign up!