If You Had Five Minutes with the President: 5 Minutes, 55+ Personalities, 1 President [Hardcover]

Ron Reagan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 10, 2004

What would you say if you had five minutes of private face time with the next president of the United States?

Based on today's issues surrounding the 2004 presidential election, If You Had Five Minutes with the President, with a foreword by Ron Reagan, features the following well-known personalities and what they would say if given the rare opportunity.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The more than 58 Hollywoodites push issues with aplomb even though they're given only a putative five minutes for lobbying a nonspecific sitting POTUS. Juliette Lewis decries the overmedicalization of children's development. Shoe man Kenneth Cole notes that 3.5 million Americans, 40% of whom are children, endure homelessness every year. Tom Arnold asks that "since there is no better word to describe bullshit than bullshit, please take that off the official forbidden words list." Minnie Driver checks in with a five-point check list ("trade, healthcare reform, education, the environment and the war in Iraq"). Morgan Fairchild concurs with the need to attack Afghanistan after 9/11 but "only wished that we could have truthfully said 'mission accomplished' before we tried to start the next [war]." The son of the 40th president tells of his work and board membership with the Creative Coalition, a nonprofit arts support organization that is the beneficiary of profits from the book. Hector Elizondo, Amanda Plummer, Matthew Modine, Mary Stuart Masterson, Chris Cooper, Janeane Garofalo and David Henry Hwang also offer their two cents in five minutes. Long on passion if short on time (and sometimes specifics), the stars come out fighting during their respective long rounds.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: HarperEntertainment (August 10, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060760699
• ISBN-13: 978-0060760694
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,362,470 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars If Only, October 28, 2009

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Final say "reviewer extraordinaire" (Hamburg, PA USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: If You Had Five Minutes with the President: 5 Minutes, 55+ Personalities, 1 President (Hardcover)

All of the chapters are enlightening and believable but the one that stuck out in my mind was Stephen Collins' five minutes on TM (transcendental meditation). He's absolutely right when he says it's not rocket science and I have to agree with him that it is one way, a good way of dealing with terrorism, afterall, isn't everyone a fan of peace?

5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Opportunity for Liberty and Justice for All, August 14, 2004

By 

Whobody (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: If You Had Five Minutes with the President: 5 Minutes, 55+ Personalities, 1 President (Hardcover)

For such a small book, If You Had Five Minutes with the President, it carries a lot of weight, and there is something for everyone in it words. Let's face it, celebrities and personalities are paid attention to by our leaders. When they have something to say, people listen.

Each personality in this book speaks eloquently about his/her indvidual concerns about homelessness, war, the electoral process, the death penalty and the distance of airport parking from the main terminal, (Tucker Carlson) and much more.

I think all of our concerns are touched upon in this book in a gentle manner. No screaming, no anger, no blaming.

As a school teacher I think this would be an appropriate addition to secondary school libraries as a way to intoduce kids to the reality of what is life in America. The Creative Cooaltion has given us an opportunity to participate in the political process and, for what it's worth, I commend them for it.

5 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Who cares about Hollywood, September 21, 2004

By 

Kevin Holtsberry (Columbus, OH USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: If You Had Five Minutes with the President: 5 Minutes, 55+ Personalities, 1 President (Hardcover)

I have a hard time understand why someone thought this book was even necessary except as a fundraiser for a Hollywood lobbying group. The book is 90% left wing rant from actors, writers, producers, and other artsy types who have no particular expertise in any of these issues and whose opinions should have no more value than anyone else's. Why should we care what these people think? This caters to an obsession with celebrity that is unhealthy and distracting.

Perhaps if Harper Collins had collected opinions from a wide segment of society (with ideological, professional, and regional diversity) it might be interesting to read what fellow citizens across the country had to say. Instead we get, with a few exceptions, insulting, condescending, sophomoric, and redundant rants from a bunch of rich, liberal, secular, artists. Their opinions are neither interesting nor new. In fact their sentiments are a dime a dozen on the Internet and in the op-ed pages of newspapers around the country. Again, why was this book necessary?