Now It's My Turn: A Daughter's Chronicle of Political Life [Hardcover]

Mary Cheney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 9, 2006

In what is sure to be one of the most talked about political memoirs of the year, Mary Cheney, who served as a top campaign aide to her father, US Vice President Dick Cheney, offers a behind-the-scenes look at the high intensity world of American presidential politicking and presents her account of what it was like to become an issue in the 2004 campaign. Cheney first campaigned with her father when she was eight years old. In the last two presidential campaigns, she was in the middle of every major event at the highest level - at the conventions, the debates, the controversies and on the trail. Both elections made history - and so did Mary. Now for the first time she writes about what it was like to be involved in her father's campaigns as a family memeber, a staffer and, although she never intended it, as a political target for the other side. Frank, funny, down-to-earth, Mary Cheney tells her own story amazing story in her own words.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This is not another coming-out story. Mary Cheney, whose father, Dick Cheney, was not upset by her sexual orientation, carefully avoids this overworked theme and focuses on her role in the 2000 and 2004 campaigns of his run for vice-president of the United States. By doing so, she pursues another tired topic, the insider look at political campaigns. Cheney's view lacks any introspection and verges on idolatry: not only does Father always know best but he is also calm, courageous, righteous, loving and wise. Whenever her dad's name comes up, Cheney's voice becomes sugary and worshipful. Her anecdotes and breezy delivery move the audio along nicely, but sometimes her narrative undercuts the hero she worships, as when her father, confronted by an audience of elementary schoolers instead of their parents, proceeds with a speech on school bonds that baffles his young audience. Those hoping for a look at Cheney's relationship with her partner, Heather Poe, will be disappointed. Cheney's voice seethes with anger at intrusions into her private life, but she fails to see that if the Democrats hadn't pushed her into the spotlight, there would be little interest in this book.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Mary Cheney served as the personal aide to her father, the vice presidential nominee, during the 2000 presidential campaign. In 2004, she was director of vice presidential operations for Bush-Cheney '04. Ms. Cheney is a graduate of Colorado College and holds an M.B.A. from the University of Denver. She currently works for AOL, Inc., and lives in Great Falls, Virginia, with her partner, Heather Poe. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Threshold Editions (May 9, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 141652049X
• ISBN-13: 978-1416520498
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (100 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,784,632 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mary Cheney served as Director of Vice-Presidential Operations for the Bush-Cheney '04 Campaign. During the 2000 presidential campaign, she was the personal aide to her father, the vice-presidential nominee. Ms. Cheney is a graduate of Colorado College and holds an M.B.A. from the University of Denver. A resident of Conifer, Colorado, she has worked for the Colorado Rockies Baseball Club and for Coors Brewing Company.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

141 of 157 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Horrible excuse for a book, May 10, 2006

By 

B. Chen - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Now It's My Turn: A Daughter's Chronicle of Political Life (Hardcover)

I don't know what this book is trying to accomplish, it's neither history or a good political analysis nor a good biography. It seems like a bunch of poorly written passages hurried together to make money before her father's tenure. Her silence before the book makes it suspect.

136 of 152 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary, May 10, 2006

By 

Terry (Breckenridge, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Now It's My Turn: A Daughter's Chronicle of Political Life (Hardcover)

This book is, to borrow a phrase from the 1960s, dullsville. Mary doesn't address such issues as working for the political party (the Republicans) who spewed the most antigay, hate-filled rhetoric, including mail and car flyers, that were perhaps the most morally repulsive since the days of George Wallace and Lester Maddox's hate-filled mail and car flyers about African Americans. She doesn't address why she and her partner were kept off the stage at tens of Republican rallies. Why she hasn't marched for civil rights for GLBTs, though she is happy to accept those rights and take advantage of them, limited as they are. The book is poorly written, poorly edited, a mishmash of excuses and moral equivocations that make Mary, at the end, a figure to be pitied. How said to be part of a family that hides you away.

369 of 424 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Um. Good lord this is bad., May 10, 2006

By 

B. Jones - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Now It's My Turn: A Daughter's Chronicle of Political Life (Hardcover)

This is a staggeringly shallow and badly written book on both a conceptual and stylistic level. Cheney has little understanding of the complexity of the relationship between sexual identity, personal freedom, and contemporary politics; mostly she's turned this into a juvenile rant about the occasional tensions in her relatively cushy life - she seems to be impressed that she's caught in a limbo-state between her parents' politics and her sexuality, but she doesn't really grasp in any meaningful way what her situation really demands, nor does she have any ability to offer a thoughtful political perspective that manages to convey the combination of conservative philosophy with personal freedom.

This is a failed book, a vanity piece, and an embarrassing display of the decadence of privilege. She's an intellectual thug - ham-handed in her phrasing, blinkered and plodding in her political perspective, and utterly devoid of anything but fawning praise or insipid attacks, with no sophisticated balance between. Too bad, too, because her situation could have brought about a really thoughtful analytical perspective on how to develop a new understanding of the balance between traditional conservatism and new notions of individual liberty, but she's brought the whole debate back several steps.