Deciding the Next Decider: The 2008 Presidential Race in Rhyme (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: Barack Obama, Mike Huckabee, The Democrats (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Displaying the form that made bestsellers of Obliviously On He Sails and A Heckuva Job, tales of the Bush Administration in rhyme, Calvin Trillin trains his verse on the 2008 race for the presidency.

Deciding the Next Decider is an ongoing campaign narrative in verse interrupted regularly by other poems, such as a country tune about John Edwards called “Yes, I Know He’s a Mill Worker’s Son, But There’s Hollywood in That Hair” and a Sarah Palin song about her foreign policy credentials: “On a Clear Day, I See Vladivostok.” It covers Mitt Romney’s transformation (“Mitt Romney’s saying now he should have known / A stem cell’s just a human, not quite grown”), the speculation about whether Al Gore was trimming down to run (“Presumably, they looked for photo ops / To see what Gore was stuffing in his chops”), the slow-motion implosion of Hillary Clinton’s drive to the White House (“Some pundits wrote that Hil’s campaign might fare / A little better if Bill wasn’t there”), and the differing responses of Barack Obama and John McCain to the financial crisis (“Though coolness has its limitations, it’ll / Prevent comparisons with Chicken Little”).

Beginning at the 2006 midterms, Deciding the Next Decider resurrects the nonstarters like George Allen (“He fit what’s often valued by the Right: / Quite cheerful, Reaganesque, and not too bright”) and the low-energy Fred Thompson (“The pros said, ‘That’s a state he has to take, / And he just might, if he can stay awake’ ”). And it carries through to the vote that made Barack Obama the forty-fourth president of the United States.

About the Author

Calvin Trillin, who became The Nation’s “deadline poet” in 1990, has also written verse on the events of the day for The New Yorker, The New York Times, and National Public Radio. His political beliefs are so colored by rhyme and meter that he once criticized Hillary Clinton for being “insufficiently iambic” and publicly advised against a presidential run by the governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich. He is the author of Obliviously on He Sails and A Heckuva Job.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Random House; First Edition edition (November 25, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400068282
• ISBN-13: 978-1400068289
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #187,652 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The High Priest of Doggerel Returns, November 25, 2008

By	H. F. Corbin "Foster Corbin" (ATLANTA, GA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

In Calvin Trillin's third telling of the national political landscape in rhyme-- he has already graced us with OBLIVIOUSLY ON HE SAILS and A HECKUVA JOB--he recounts the 2008 political race. Even if you think you cannot read another word about the campaign, Mr. Trillin's skewerings go down like a really first-class flan. Although I had listened to the talking heads, read the blogs and watched mainline television, I learned something: that Julie Eisenhower contributed to the Obama campaign. In addition to all the people running for president, Phil Gramm, Reverend Wright, Karl Rove et al make appearances. Here are some of my favorite Trillinisms: He compares the current occupant in the White House's approval rating to herpes. He reminds us that no one cared that Ralph Nader ran and suggests that you could buy a house twice as big as Buckingham Palace with what it costs to run for president.

On John Edwards: Yes, I know he's a mill worker's son, but
There's Hollywood in that hair.

On Rudy Guiliani: The stories of his married life comfirm
That, if we can be frank, the man's a worm.

On Mitt Romney: So quick to shed his moderate regalia,
He may, like Ken [as in Ken and Barbie] be lacking
genitalia.

On Fred Thompson: The pros said, "That's a state (SC) he has to take,
And he just might, if he can stay awake.

On Sarah Palin: On Russia's being not so far away
She sounded eerily like Tina Fey.

The nicest Republican award goes to Huckabee whom Trillin describes as a wacko but pleasant. And he reminds us that three of the ten Republican presidential candidates do not believe in evolution.

It is worth the price of this book to see that the writer lampoons the Sunday television pundits, calling them "the Sabbath Gasbags." (Foster's note: George Will, are you listening?)

After all Mr. Trillin's jesting, he ends this little volume on a quite moving patriotic note with Obama's acceptance speech in Chicago, telling us that many African Americans were in tears. (I know many Caucasians who wept as well.)

And foreigners, from Rome to Yokohama,
Were cheering an American: Obama
From this vote they were willing to infer
We aren't the people they had thought we were.
And Lady Liberty, as people call her,
Was standing in the harbor somewhat taller.

Here is my own poetic offering in praise of Mr. Trillin:

Mr. Trillin has abandoned a Texas cowboy
For a sinning North Carolina boy toy.
Add a John McCain older than God
And a winking endtimer married to Todd.
Do not forget a Hillary shackled by Bill.
That leaves suave Obama to go in for the kill.

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Candidates in the rhyme-light, November 26, 2008

By	Jon Hunt "musician, teacher" (Old Greenwich, Ct. USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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Of Trillin's tomes, this is his third
Ré "presidente" most absurd.
A retrospective here, as we
Say adios to forty-three.

So many names in Calvin's book
Worth noting with one final look.
Romney, Richardson and Paul...
So many candidates in all.

There's poor McCain whose change of mind
On issues left him far behind.
And as for pickin' Sarah Palin,
He then became Obama-trailin'.

Remember that poor loser Rudy?
(His dimples deep as Howdy Doody)
And there's the nation's chief abrader
Ralph, who saw his Nader's nadir.

But in the end, just one campaign
Can break out bottles of champagne.
Obama won, and if you will,
Outlasted Clintons, Hill and Bill.

Barack and Hill...can he abide her
And still become the chief decider?
You betcha!!! As for "Dub-ba-yah",
His Elba might be Iowa.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Kapow, February 14, 2009

By	Stephen T. Hopkins (Oak Park, Illinois) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Now that the presidential election of 2008 is over, and the new President is at work, it's time for the historians and poets to take over the explanation of what happened. Bud Trillin's new book, Deciding the Next Decider, condenses the long campaign into 100 pages, most of which is a long narrative poem. Trillin injects poems previously published in The Nation (where he has been the deadline poet since 1990) and elsewhere throughout the text. His song parodies are especially wicked. Every candidate in the campaign is skewered in verse, and I found myself reading a page or two again after I had stopped laughing. Trillin's talent soars on these few pages, and this book will entertain readers of all political persuasions.

Rating: Three-star (Recommended)