13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
It an average book that lacks passion, March 17, 2004
Alan Colmes book is empty of passion. His words are strung together arguments that attempt to form a text for his liberal beliefs. To put his book in context it's without substance much like a boy band is to the rock music scene.
Alan seems like a nice guy. I believe he feels the way he does about being a liberal but beyond that this book is totally souless. It appears to be the work of a very good editor who organized Alan's points into chapters which became a book. If anyone is to be credited, it's Alan's editor who, to me, appeared to be a driving force in making this a presentable work. Which goes back to my point about this being similar to a boy band. It's not heartfelt. It's passionless. It mimics other books much like a boy band mimics other acts but it's all contrived. There isn't any deep rooted emotions here.
Alan spends time saying this conservative is my friend and that conservative is my friend to the point that he is so busy appeasing everyone that he comes across lacking depth. He fence straddles on several points to the extent that you think he was running for office or something.
In short, while the points raised in the book appeared to be Alan's beliefs the book is empty of an emotional core that brings the writer into what is being said. Read Sidney Blumenthal's "Clinton Wars" to see what a real writer with heart and deep rooted convictions writes like. Those who like an "intro to liberalism" may find this book acceptable but everyone else can take a pass.
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24 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not Your Typical "Liberal-Minded" Political Book, November 26, 2003
Alan Colmes probably feels like Leon Trotsky on some days. It was Trotsky's fate, of course, to be laid low by an ice axe at the behest of the very revolution that he helped to spawn. But here he is (Alan, not Leon) with a very visible television gig, a daily radio program, and now a book. Yet liberals treat him like a redheaded stepchild! You'd think he was Joe Lieberman! Why is that? The answer, I think, is contained in his book RED, WHITE & LIBERAL.
Colmes seemed to spring out of nowhere onto Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes. He's been around for a while, however. His radio program dates back to the 1970s. On October 1, 1990 he came to be renowned as the first nationally syndicated liberal radio talk show host (he's not, but that's an argument for another time). His program in most markets immediately followed Rush Limbaugh, the thought apparently being that stations could stir up a little right-left interest. And in some cases it worked.
I used to listen to him every day, primarily for his "Radio Graffiti" feature. Listeners could call up and say one sentence over the air, then it was on to the next caller. It moved quickly and was on for about three minutes at the beginning and end of his program. It was fairly easy to get through --- Alan, alas, didn't have much of an audience --- so there were regulars who called in such as myself. There was also a really entertaining guy who called himself "The Alabama Dittohead" and who occasionally, though not always, made more sense in one sentence than Alan did in two hours. But in between Radio Graffiti, there was Alan, reliably liberal as he attempted to defend the indefensible Bill Clinton and a host of other causes du jour. It was on the strength of that program that Sean Hannity recommended Colmes to co-host the program now known as Hannity & Colmes. And, of course, he has a new radio program.
Colmes often comes across as Howdy Doody to Hannity's Buffalo Bob Smith, but that is merely because he is passionate in what he believes. You can tell when Colmes has had his buttons pushed because he bounces up and down in his chair. One of the cardinal sins of our current age is to look bad on television, and Colmes in the past has raised that to an art form. But he is doing better. True, the old Alan has been manifesting himself lately as he reminds everyone each night that he has written a new book. But that's almost endearing; it's actually kind of refreshing to see a media figure like Colmes being proud of something he did without a hint of faux modesty. So more power to him.
I want to assure you though that Colmes really frosts me. I spent as much time throwing RED, WHITE & LIBERAL across the room as I did reading it. It has more air miles at casa de Hartlaub than the Concorde. Some people accuse Alan of being a closet conservative but it's hard to read RED, WHITE & LIBERAL and still believe that. No, Colmes is still reliably liberal. Go down the checklist and he's right on the Left. Abortion, check! Gun confiscation, check! Increased taxes, check! Blame Bush for everything, check!
Sponge Al Frankenpants has taken Colmes to task --- confronted him, actually --- for not taking the fight to Hannity directly on the program they co-host. Such criticism misses the format of the program, wherein the co-hosts confront the guests, not each other (think Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolff? and you'll get it). If Colmes has needed to establish his bona fides, however, RED, WHITE & LIBERAL does that. I mean, one chapter is entitled "Bill Clinton, Our Greatest President." Another is called "Jesus Was A Liberal." But you know what? As strongly as I would disagree with those statements, they are argued reasonably. Forcefully, but reasonably. Colmes occasionally distracts from his arguments by sprinkling the chapters with transcripts of e-mail he has received from disgruntled viewers, but for the most part he stays on track.
So why then is Colmes disliked by liberals? The answer, I believe, is ultimately contained in Chapter Eleven, entitled "Where Right Is Right." It's one of the shortest in the book, as one might expect (Colmes IS a liberal, after all, and the presence of the chapter in this book is remarkable in itself). But Colmes ultimately gets it. He is not part of the "blame America First" crowd, and I have a feeling that if one of the ne'er-do-wells who are fronting for A.N.S.W.E.R. came on his program he'd hand them their head as quickly as Hannity would. I mean, here is a guy --- a liberal --- who closes a chapter with a transcript of the lyrics of Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the U.S.A." No wonder Franken takes off on him! Colmes doesn't hew to the party line!
Yes, RED, WHITE & LIBERAL infuriated me, but only because I disagreed so strongly with so much of it (except of course with Chapter Eleven). If you want to understand where that scatterbrained sister of yours (or her husband) is coming from, however, or if you're a liberal seeking to better articulate your worldview to your conservative friends, this (and it pains me, oh how it pains me to say this) is the book you should pick up.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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