Too Funny To Be President - Softcover

Udall, Morris K.

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51 ratings by Goodreads

9780816521753: Too Funny To Be President

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816521751 ISBN 13: 9780816521753

Publisher: University of Arizona Press, 2001

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"With a bumper crop of presidential candidates surfacing, I have concluded that a plague of presidentialitis has swept the nation. Speaking from experience, I must remind all these worthy contenders that once this dreaded disease whose symptoms include delusions of grandeur and an urge to make repeated visits to Iowa gets into a man’s bloodstream, it can only be cured by embalming fluid." Mo UdallMorris "Mo" Udall, Arizona's Democratic congressman for thirty years, was as well known for his sense of humor as for his dedication to environmental causes. And it was during his 1976 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, when he claims he drew more laughter than votes, that James K. Kilpatrick pronounced him "too funny to be president."Udall kept four black notebooks of jokes that he had collected throughout his public life. Some he heard in the courtroom or on the floor of the House; others he found in old speeches and newspaper articles; still others he swiped on the rubber-chicken circuit. This book, a memoir of Udall's career, collects many of those jokes to create a citizen's guide to the lighter side of politics."After due deliberation and two stiff drinks," Udall writes, "I decided to go ahead and write this book because I'm convinced that humor is as necessary to the health of our political discourse as it is in our private lives." Too Funny To Be President is a testament to the Udall spirit and an example to all who would win the public's heart.

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From Publishers Weekly:

A long-time congressman from Arizona, Udall ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976 and, finishing second in any number of primaries, ultimately lost out to Jimmy Carter. One of the reasons for his defeat, he implies here, may have been his irrepressible sense of humor, and he presents examples of it in this lighthearted autobiography. There is serious information about his life and political career, but the book begins and ends with scores of anecdotes, most of them political, from such diverse sources as Leo Tolstoy and Will Rogers. Some of the most telling stories are credited to Mark Twain, Abe Lincoln and Adlai Stevenson, and almost all of them are trenchant and amusing. The editing is haphazard, however, for several of the jokes are repeated.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

Noting that "we live in a country where public figures and a free press can laugh together," Udall writes on the value of wit. Drawing on his upbringing in small-town Arizona and years as a Congressman, this statesman contends that "humor is possibly the most potent tool a politician can wield." He discusses his defeat in the 1979 presidential primaries, his legislative triumphs, and his misguided battle to dam up the Grand Canyon, and encourages public speakers to borrow jokes and stories from his "black notebooks." Contemporary, anecdotal, and highly readable; recommended for those weary of political antics. Kimberly G. Allen, Supreme Court Lib., Washington , D.C.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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