Great Presidential Wit: A Collection of Humorous Anecdotes and Quotations

After the success of "Great Political Wit", Senator Dole followed up with this book. It is a book full of witty sayings of and anecdotes about our Presidents. He has grouped the Presidents from the wittiest descending to the point of having good stories about those Presidents that weren't particularly funny. Mr. Dole even provides his own ranking of the Presidents as wits from #1 - Lincoln down to #41 - poor Millard Fillmore. These stories and witty sayings are generally quite good. Some you will want to remember. He even has a last section on George W. Bush and Al Gore. You will remember some of these from your own reading of the news and watching Letterman and Leno.What I like about these little stories is the human touch they add to the too often formal and impersonal view we have of our Presidents. We see their pictures, memorize a couple of dates and maybe some key legislation or war during their time in office and that will be it. We seldom get to know them as people. These stories, in just a few sentences, show their character and view of themselves, their time, and the world in which they lived. Sure, too much can be made of them. But they do add something useful and a chuckle or two never hurt anyone's day.This is a bit larger volume than the first book, but it doesn't read long. And, like the first one, it is fun to just dip into now and again.

I really enjoyed reading Senator Bob Dole's entertaining look at the humor of the American presidents from George Washington to the present. While this book is certainly entertaining, it is also instructive in its own little way. Some former presidents seem to exist in name only, if that, in today's world, and Dole's little collection of quips and stories actually brings a little life into these important men of history. While Dole does not explore the agendas and politics of each president, the sense of personality that comes through in the case of even the most inscrutable of our top public servants is often rather informative. A sense of humor, while far from a qualification for the office, can be a great aid to any president, and Dole emphasizes the point that our greatest presidents have possessed both a funny bone and backbone. Each president gets his own little section of the book, wherein Dole has assembled a number of presidential quotes and stories alongside a number of comments made by politicians and humorists about each president in turn. I can't say that every reference here is funny, but there are some amazingly good zingers included, and I, as a whole, found this book highly entertaining. Dole is a pretty funny man in his own right, and his sense of humor shows in these pages.Dole goes so far as to rank the first 41 (counting Grover Cleveland only once) elected leaders of the free world in terms of their humor, and the fact that the top ten consist of five Democrats and five Republicans is evidence of the total lack of partisanship Dole brings to this endeavor. Topping the list is Abraham Lincoln, and rightfully so; there are plenty of pages detailing the wit of our sixteenth President, a man who said "I laugh because I must not try" during the terribly difficult days of the War Between the States. Second place goes to Ronald Reagan, the Great Communicator and master of the one-liner. Third and fourth place go to Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt, respectively. These top four really stand a world apart from their White House cohorts. Fifth place goes to none other than Calvin Coolidge. Now, this came as something of a surprise to me, but as Dole demonstrates, Silent Cal was indeed quite a jokester and humorist; in fact, the funniest episode recorded in this book, at least in my opinion, is attributed to Coolidge. Kennedy, Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Hoover, and Wilson round out Dole's top ten. As one proceeds through the book, the material for each president significantly decreases; there just isn't a lot of humorous material to work with for those presidents ranking at the bottom of Dole's charts: Taylor, Harding, Van Buren, Buchanan, William Henry Harrison, Pierce, Benjamin Harrison, and poor Millard Fillmore who seems destined to bring up the rear in just about every kind of presidential survey one can devise. If these men ever said one thing funny, Dole includes it, but there are definitely slim pickings here. As fo

Buy it, you won't be disapointed!

This book is a collection of short vignettes, either displaying the wit of one of America's presidents, or the wit of someone connected with the president. I must admit that I was quite surprised at the wit of some of them, notably Calvin Coolidge. (Who would have thought it?) The organization of these stories or witticisms into small bites makes this an excellent resource for speech writing. However, some of these stories are so funny that just about anyone will enjoy reading this book.

Apparently not every president is as humorous as the next, but there are some real gems in this book. Several are "laugh out loud" quotes. Nixon's quotes were surprisingly funny, he was a smart guy and it comes out in this book. I used one of the quotes (FDR) for a memorial service recently and it was well received. I would recommend this book to history buffs, and public speakers. There are some gems in here. The book was a gift, I would never have bought it myself,(you are on TV commercials too much Mr. Dole). I did, however, very much enjoy the book. Give it a read.