A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the White House: Humor, Blunders, and Other Oddities From the Presidential Campaign Trail [Hardcover]

Charles Osgood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 13, 2008

"If you are one of that benighted handful of people who isn't wise to Charles Osgood's incisive and humorous look at the foibles of your fellow men, here is your chance to catch up. Try not to foul up again!"
--Walter Cronkite

Charles Osgood, one of America's favorite news personalities, offers a hilarious compendium of anecdotes from the last seventy years of presidential campaigns.

With anecdotes from Harry Truman to JFK to George W. Bush, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the White House captures the wit and humor of the campaign trail. Culled from speeches, interviews, press conferences, as well as articles written by and about the candidates--no source is left untapped.

From Bob Dole telling reporters after a loss in the primary that "I slept like a baby--every two hours I woke up and cried," and Barry Goldwater's comment that his talkative opponent Hubert Humphreys "has been clocked at 275 words a minute with gusts up to 340," to Adlai Stevenson declaring that "If I talk over the people's head, Ike must be talking under their feet," this is the go-to source for campaign humor.

Just when America most needs a good laugh, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the White House makes the seemingly endless race to the presidency a lot more fun.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Osgood, a soothing voice on the radio and a comforting visage on Sunday-morning television, here compiles campaign quotations for his sizable audience. Picked from presidential campaigns between 1948 and 2004, the speakers’ lines prompt chuckles that are sometimes intentional, frequently unwitting, and always amusing. Osgood’s eye for the political funny bone covers the myriad ways a politician gets a laugh, including self-deprecation, ridiculing the opposition, satirizing the carnival aspects of campaigning, and foot-in-the-mouth goofs. Some pols probably would have been better stand-up comics than presidents, such as 1976 also-ran Morris Udall, who quipped: “The voters have spoken—the bastards!” Osgood’s nomination for the funniest candidate is two-time loser Adlai Stevenson, who furnished this collection’s title and a string of wry remarks about his egghead image and hopeless chances against the popular Eisenhower. For each campaign, Osgood thumbnails the issues and the candidates’ use of humor, noting their reliance on the risible with the increasing political influence of comedy shows. From Richard Nixon’s “Sock it to me” delivery on Laugh-In to appearances on the shows of Leno and Letterman, presidential hopefuls have used jokes to connect with folks. Well-stocked with verbal pratfalls (“Republicans understand the importance of the bondage between parent and child.” ––Dan Quayle), Osgood’s collection provides welcome comedic relief during this year’s silly season. --Gilbert Taylor

About the Author

Charles Osgood, dubbed CBS News's "poet-in-residence," anchors CBS Sunday Morning on television, and writes and anchors The Osgood Files four times daily on the CBS Radio Network. The recipient of three Emmys and three Peabody awards, he was named the "Best in the Business" by Washington Journalism Review for five straight years. The author of the New York Times bestseller Defending Baltimore Against Enemy Attack and Kilroy Was Here, Osgood lives in New York City with his wife.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion (May 13, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401322298
• ISBN-13: 978-1401322298
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,349,811 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Like a box of Chocolates, July 10, 2008

By 

Conor Cunneen "SHEIFGAB author - Conor Cunneen" (Naperville, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the White House: Humor, Blunders, and Other Oddities From the Presidential Campaign Trail (Hardcover)

Forrest Gump's phrase comes to mind when reading this book, "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get."
Osgood has put together an excellent selection of humorous quotes and anecdotes from Truman to our current incumbent. Many of them are well known but that does not take from the joy of the book. This is a book best enjoyed if you simply deep into it. It is also a book that might be of real interest to anyone in the public light or a humorous keynote speaker as it contains some wonderful nuggets.

The most humorous elements of the book run from Harry Truman through to the Johnson/Goldwater campaign. Maybe candidates just got more wary in the more intrusive media age, but few of our most recent candidates excite humorous interest except of course Ronald Reagan.

Buy this book and place beside your bedside table. Just a few pages a night will have you sleeping happy.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Looking for humour in politics is like looking for fool's gold in Arizona, May 15, 2008

By 

Theodore A. Rushton (PHOENIX, Arizona United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the White House: Humor, Blunders, and Other Oddities From the Presidential Campaign Trail (Hardcover)

Listen, my friend, and you shall hear, the odd bit of humour, for this is an election year - - which means the politicians want to fool enough of the people enough of the time to get enough votes and no more.

Jokes do occur on the way to the White House, but few politicians have the courage to indulge heavily in humour. Someone might believe them. Thus, politics is usually deadly dull.

In this vast wasteland of modern politics, though, there are occasional glimmers of wit . . . somewhat akin to seeing flecks of gold in a stream bed. There's not enough to get rich, but it's nice to know gold can still be found in the most tired of stream beds or campaigns.

Osgood does a masterful job in collecting campaign quips, barbs and goofs, which means the book shows a sad recent trend. Fifty years ago, most of the quotes were from candidates; today, the humour of politics is dominated by late night clowns.

Perhaps the 1996 campaign is indicative: Sen. Bob Dole, who challenged President Clinton, was reputed to have a sharp sense of humour. It wasn't expressed in the campaign. Instead, even when Dole smiled, it looked like he'd just evicted a widow.

Politics has lost the sunny optimism and confidence once expressed by Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, and become a business of stolid national survival. It's hard to smile when both parties base their platforms on the choice, "It's us or treason". Politics is now too serious to laugh about, every election is "the most important one in our generation". That's no laughing matter.

Finding humour in today's politicians are like expecting humour from funeral directors in the middle of a service.

Osgood has done a superb job in panning for the golden nuggets of political humour, and the book is packed with the best he could find. But, it's an almost impossible quest; looking for gold in today's politics is like looking for fool's gold in Arizona. It can be found, but what's it worth?

Maybe it's time to ignore the politicians and look for humour among his fellow reporters.

5.0 out of 5 stars Very satisfied, July 10, 2010

By 

George (New Mexico, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the White House: Humor, Blunders, and Other Oddities From the Presidential Campaign Trail (Hardcover)

This is just what I wanted, in the condition stated, and delivered in a timely manner. I would recommend this vendor and its products.