Tuesday, April 23, 2002

Political books II: Jeff Greenfield's Oh Waiter! One Order of Crow! is a highly entertaining read about a political event that seems so incredibly distant now: the disputed election of 2000. I actually read this book last fall, immediately after the attacks -- a bit of timing that made the book's subject matter seem shallower, less consequential, than perhaps it should. Greenfield's book is a description of how all of our election day systems came crashing to a halt on November 7, 2000 -- the media included. I remember sitting up until three o'clock that morning, watching Tim Russert scrawling electoral scenarios on a greaseboard; I remember all the machinations in Florida with all the hypocrisy on both sides; and most of all I remember a dull fall campaign that year between (as Greenfield puts it) "a candidate who spoke English to us as if it were our second language and a candidate who spoke English as if it were his second language." Political junkies should definitely read this one.

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