A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the White House: Humor, Blunders, and Other Oddities from the Presidential Campaign Trail

After growing weary of all the political ads I've heard lately attacking Republican and Democrat candidates, I needed some comic relief from politics and found it the other day in the local public library. "A Funny Thing" contains several humorous quotes and stories from Republican, Democrat, and Independent candidates from the 1948 election (Truman vs. Dewey) to the 2004 election (Bush vs. Kerry). At the beginning of each chapter the candidates, their vice-president, number of electoral votes, and popular votes are listed. While most of the humorous quotes and stories were from and about the various candidates while on the campaign trail, there are some others after the winning candidate assumed office. Among the candidates quoted are: Truman, Stevenson, Kennedy, Nixon, McGovern, Goldwater, Carter, Ford, Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, Gore, Bush 43, and Kerry. Whatever your political persuasion, "A Funny Thing" is a funny read on the more light-hearted side of politics. Read and enjoy. Highly recommended!

I haven't even finished this gem of political quips, one-liners and come backs and I'm already recommending it to everyone I know. In fact, this is the first time I've ever reviewed a book and do so whole heartedly. I am savoring each chapter as if I were at a great tasting. I find myself trying to remember the juicy, outrageous and unexpected quotes, and struggle not to read too many out loud to others so that they read and appreciate "A Funny Thing Happened..." for themselves. I also appreciate Charles Osgood's chapter introductions and contextualizing the quotes within the specific campaign races, though this was clearly done with a twinkle in his eye and a bemused smile on his face. This book is a keeper long after the current campaign season is over.

In reality, several funny things happened on the way to the White House and Charles Osgood has waded through what has to be a very large pile of clippings in order to bring his readers some of the funniest. The basic format that the book follows is to give a chapter to each presidential election starting with the 1948 contest. Each chapter starts out with a short overview of the election in question and then the fun starts. In each chapter there are direct quotes from the candidates along with blurbs from observers, the media and other political figures and there are things in here that you just won't believe. Some of the quotes come from very quick-witted candidates who were able to snap off nice one-liners in response to almost any question or situation. Among the best practitioners of this art were Harry Truman, Barry Goldwater, Mo Udall and Ronald Reagan. Other jewels from this treasure chest include foul-ups and misstatements from candidates some of which the candidates immediately tried to correct and others that made perfect sense to the candidate but left everyone else scratching their heads. Vice Presidents Agnew and Quayle lead this category by a mile but along the way Quayle at least realized that he was making a lot of misstatements and told reporters that he was going to start being more careful with his words. He said, "Verbosity leads to unclear, matriculate things." Huh? This is a must have book for any political junkie with the only drawback being that the book isn't longer. Both Democrats and Republicans say some pretty stupid things sometime and Mr. Osgood has taken this opportunity to remind us that a party label is no barrier to cleverness or unfortunately the occasional bit of stupidity. Even independent candidates like George Wallace and Ross Perot aren't immune form foot in mouth disease and both of them also show up in these pages. There are also little blurbs included that focus on local contests and in one of those there is a congressman who when asked what he planned to do if he was reelected replied, "I'm more worried about what I'm going to do if I'm not reelected." If honesty is the best policy then that guy should have won reelection in a landslide. This book may not make you any wiser and it may not be the stuff that Pulitzer Prizes are made of but it sure will remind you that all of the candidates are only human and if we are expecting perfection from our candidates or our presidents we are in big trouble. The only person that could fill that bill was born in Bethlehem and is therefore not eligible to be elected president.

I have only read about 80% of the book and recommend it to any reader that wants another view of American politics. While I understand that Charles Osgood is repeating quotes of the candidates over 40+ years, he has done thorough research and has portrayed the candidates in a brighter light in my eyes. I have been interested in history all of my life and I find his book informative and enlightening. Well worth the money for the book!!!! AAAA++++

Listen, my friend, and you shall hear, the odd bit of humour, for this is an election year - - which means the politicians want to fool enough of the people enough of the time to get enough votes and no more. Jokes do occur on the way to the White House, but few politicians have the courage to indulge heavily in humour. Someone might believe them. Thus, politics is usually deadly dull. In this vast wasteland of modern politics, though, there are occasional glimmers of wit . . . somewhat akin to seeing flecks of gold in a stream bed. There's not enough to get rich, but it's nice to know gold can still be found in the most tired of stream beds or campaigns. Osgood does a masterful job in collecting campaign quips, barbs and goofs, which means the book shows a sad recent trend. Fifty years ago, most of the quotes were from candidates; today, the humour of politics is dominated by late night clowns. Perhaps the 1996 campaign is indicative: Sen. Bob Dole, who challenged President Clinton, was reputed to have a sharp sense of humour. It wasn't expressed in the campaign. Instead, even when Dole smiled, it looked like he'd just evicted a widow. Politics has lost the sunny optimism and confidence once expressed by Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, and become a business of stolid national survival. It's hard to smile when both parties base their platforms on the choice, "It's us or treason". Politics is now too serious to laugh about, every election is "the most important one in our generation". That's no laughing matter. Finding humour in today's politicians are like expecting humour from funeral directors in the middle of a service. Osgood has done a superb job in panning for the golden nuggets of political humour, and the book is packed with the best he could find. But, it's an almost impossible quest; looking for gold in today's politics is like looking for fool's gold in Arizona. It can be found, but what's it worth? Maybe it's time to ignore the politicians and look for humour among his fellow reporters.