Customer Reviews

Great Presidential Wit (...I Wish I Was in the Book): A Collection of Humorous Anecdotes and Quotations

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After the success of "Great Political Wit", Senator Dole followed up with this book. It is a book full of witty sayings of and anecdotes about our Presidents. He has grouped the Presidents from the wittiest descending to the point of having good stories about those Presidents that weren't particularly funny. Mr. Dole even provides his own ranking of the Presidents as wits from #1 - Lincoln down to #41 - poor Millard Fillmore.

These stories and witty sayings are generally quite good. Some you will want to remember. He even has a last section on George W. Bush and Al Gore. You will remember some of these from your own reading of the news and watching Letterman and Leno.

What I like about these little stories is the human touch they add to the too often formal and impersonal view we have of our Presidents. We see their pictures, memorize a couple of dates and maybe some key legislation or war during their time in office and that will be it. We seldom get to know them as people. These stories, in just a few sentences, show their character and view of themselves, their time, and the world in which they lived. Sure, too much can be made of them. But they do add something useful and a chuckle or two never hurt anyone's day.

This is a bit larger volume than the first book, but it doesn't read long. And, like the first one, it is fun to just dip into now and again.

While this book does provide insights into the lives and minds of former Presidents of the United States, the humor is generally not of the highest quality. The reason for this is obvious, the Presidents of the United States were not funny men. Quite frankly, some in the nineteenth century were men who were compromise candidates chosen more for their perceived weaknesses than strengths. Bob Dole, who tried for the job several times but never made it, places them into eight categories, from " A Class By Themselves" to "The Jokes On Them." The one surprise in the grouping was Calvin Coolidge, who was ranked fifth, right before John Kennedy. Given his public persona, it is amazing that Coolidge would be considered to have been a witty, humorous man.
For those at the bottom, the tales are those that barely raise a ripple in your brow. I understand why Dole would have wanted to include something from every president, but those stories are the major weakness of the book. In some cases, it is necessary to resort to tales of biting sarcasm of others rather than wit.
To appreciate the strongest part of the book, it is necessary to read it from a historical perspective. The early presidents were men of an aristocratic flavor, and were definitely no-nonsense types as they tried to build and advance a young nation with tremendous potential and an experimental government. As the nation became more divided and moved towards an internal war the president was rather a lame figure. The giant of them all was Lincoln, ranked first by Dole and someone who is clearly the best president this country has ever had. He was also someone that you would like on a personal level. Another theme running through the book is how so many presidents viewed it as a prison as much as anything else and were eager to leave the position.
There are few tales in this book that will make you laugh out loud. At best you will chuckle and see some of the former presidents in a way you did not before.

This book is a collection of short vignettes, either displaying the wit of one of America's presidents, or the wit of someone connected with the president. I must admit that I was quite surprised at the wit of some of them, notably Calvin Coolidge. (Who would have thought it?) The organization of these stories or witticisms into small bites makes this an excellent resource for speech writing. However, some of these stories are so funny that just about anyone will enjoy reading this book.

Bob Dole is really funny! A few weeks ago the Doles and Clintons gave speeches in Washington D.C. and I happened to hear them on C-span. Dole's dead pan humor and hilarious one liners actually made me laugh out loud! Later that day I purchased this book which is quite good.

After researching all the American presidents, Dole rates them from the funniest to least funny. Some of the best lines are from prominent people other than the president. There is a saying (not in this book) "Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused"!Some of our presidents, fortunately, have been likeable, intelligent and quite witty. This fine collection of humorous quips and anecdotes makes an excellent gift for all ages. Bob Dole's remarks are right on!

My reason for the 4 star rating is for one reason only: Since most of us remember the faces of only a few past presidents, a small picture of the president being quoted at the beginning of each chapter would have been a nice touch. Dates are included which is helpful as we relate to each presidential term while reading.

The introduction to this book is entitled " Backbones and Funny Bones" In this intro, Bob Dole expresses his views on presidential humor with rare insight and he provides us with his "Dole poll of presidential wit and humor" in a non-partisan way. 41 presidents are rated as humorists along with a brief discription of why. This is a gem.

I really enjoyed reading Senator Bob Dole's entertaining look at the humor of the American presidents from George Washington to the present. While this book is certainly entertaining, it is also instructive in its own little way. Some former presidents seem to exist in name only, if that, in today's world, and Dole's little collection of quips and stories actually brings a little life into these important men of history. While Dole does not explore the agendas and politics of each president, the sense of personality that comes through in the case of even the most inscrutable of our top public servants is often rather informative. A sense of humor, while far from a qualification for the office, can be a great aid to any president, and Dole emphasizes the point that our greatest presidents have possessed both a funny bone and backbone. Each president gets his own little section of the book, wherein Dole has assembled a number of presidential quotes and stories alongside a number of comments made by politicians and humorists about each president in turn. I can't say that every reference here is funny, but there are some amazingly good zingers included, and I, as a whole, found this book highly entertaining. Dole is a pretty funny man in his own right, and his sense of humor shows in these pages.

Dole goes so far as to rank the first 41 (counting Grover Cleveland only once) elected leaders of the free world in terms of their humor, and the fact that the top ten consist of five Democrats and five Republicans is evidence of the total lack of partisanship Dole brings to this endeavor. Topping the list is Abraham Lincoln, and rightfully so; there are plenty of pages detailing the wit of our sixteenth President, a man who said "I laugh because I must not try" during the terribly difficult days of the War Between the States. Second place goes to Ronald Reagan, the Great Communicator and master of the one-liner. Third and fourth place go to Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt, respectively. These top four really stand a world apart from their White House cohorts. Fifth place goes to none other than Calvin Coolidge. Now, this came as something of a surprise to me, but as Dole demonstrates, Silent Cal was indeed quite a jokester and humorist; in fact, the funniest episode recorded in this book, at least in my opinion, is attributed to Coolidge. Kennedy, Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Hoover, and Wilson round out Dole's top ten. As one proceeds through the book, the material for each president significantly decreases; there just isn't a lot of humorous material to work with for those presidents ranking at the bottom of Dole's charts: Taylor, Harding, Van Buren, Buchanan, William Henry Harrison, Pierce, Benjamin Harrison, and poor Millard Fillmore who seems destined to bring up the rear in just about every kind of presidential survey one can devise. If these men ever said one thing funny, Dole includes it, but there are definitely slim pickings here. As for other presidents who may be of special interest to readers, George Bush (number 41) is twelfth, Washington fifteenth, Jefferson sixteenth, Clinton seventeenth, Carter twenty-second, and Nixon twenty-fifth. Since the results of the 2000 election were not known when this book went to the publisher, Dole has included a final chapter devoted to both George W. Bush and Al Gore.

Basically, Great Presidential Wit is one of the few politics-related books that both conservatives and liberals can both enjoy equally and civilly, as laughter knows no political party affiliation.

A great politician has to be able to relate to people. Make them laugh, feel their pain, understand their wants and desires. For the most part, however, a history book or text will only discuss the dry political or military parts of our leaders. Here, at last, one can learn about the more "human" parts of our leaders, what makes them laugh.

In particular, in his third book, Mr. Dole discusses how funny some of our leaders really were. I especially enjoyed Lincoln's wit. For example one general, apparently tired of Lincoln's interference and micro managing, sarcastically wired to Lincoln and informed him that he had captured six cows.

"What should I do now? He asked. Lincoln wired back - "Milk them."

Arranged by funniest too humorless, over and over this book can and probably will make you laugh and marvel at some of our prior leaders. However, I would like to see a little better organization. As it is, this book almost useless for a source book for speeches and the like as there is no indexing. In addition, what is here is good, but there isn't a lot. As such, if you don't have a lot of money to spend, you may want to think twice before you purchase this book. But, don't worry, Bob Dole doesn't need your money. He is doing all those Viagra commercials.

Here's an entertaining little book that could have been a real blockbuster. The best aspect of this book is that it presents the various personalities of our former presidents, so you get to know them in a personal way instead just a boring listing of their accomplishments. It also reveals how incompetant and ill-equiped for office some of them were. Although worth the time, this tidy book could have been so much more.

Apparently not every president is as humorous as the next, but there are some real gems in this book. Several are "laugh out loud" quotes. Nixon's quotes were surprisingly funny, he was a smart guy and it comes out in this book. I used one of the quotes (FDR) for a memorial service recently and it was well received. I would recommend this book to history buffs, and public speakers. There are some gems in here. The book was a gift, I would never have bought it myself,(you are on TV commercials too much Mr. Dole). I did, however, very much enjoy the book. Give it a read.

Indeed I wish Bob Dole was in this book, instead of reporting on the wit and humor of the highest office's previous occupants. I believe humor and the ability to laugh at yourself is a great asset with any person in high office. When Dole lost in 1996, he stated he slept like a baby....he cried all night.
The book is structured on rating the president's ability to crack jokes. Many people believe that Lincoln and FDR had great wits. Dole states the many unknowns such as Coolidge's jokes about his silence. Some of our underrated Presidents had great wits.
This is a nice little humorous read. If the reader needs an uplift, this is a great book to begin with.

This collection of clever and even funny things said by politicians will be especially entertaining to a political junkie. For most, I think "you had to be there". Many of these bons mots are not great on their own, but if you can visualize the moment, or imagine yourself there, most are richly amusing.