WHICH IS THE POINT OF PUTTING IT IN A BOOK:

'Hope' Lacks Heft (JOHN McWHORTER, August 14, 2008, NY Sun)

Then there are those who don't have a sense of what Mr. Obama is about. These are people who are not especially intrigued by his multicultural biography. They just want to know what he has to offer.

On this topic, we hear this week that the Obama folks are about to put out a book summarizing his policy proposals and reprinting some of his speeches. "A" for effort, but this won't do it.

For one thing, a book is not the best way to get your message out when the people who need to hear it tend to have a less intimate relationship with the printed page than Obama fans who subscribe to the Atlantic. My wife and I spent part of our vacation in a working-class seaside town, and the used bookstores there were bursting with paperback fiction and children's books. Nonfiction stuff was on the margins, mostly biographies and books about the movies.

These days even erstwhile pageaholics such as Nicholas Carr, in the Atlantic, are admitting that they barely make it through nonfiction books anymore and are more inclined to scoot around online. Beyond self-help books and other utilitarian tomes, most people do not read nonfiction books and never have.

If the Unicorn Rider's policies would help him with the electorate he'd mention them in speeches. They don't, so you point at the book, say your substance is right there, and then continue spooning out pabulum in Baptist cadences.

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 14, 2008 10:17 AM