First published 2008
Calvin Trillin watches the 2008 presidential campaign unfold and transforms every twist into rhyming verse. He captures Mitt Romney's policy reversals on stem cell research, tracks speculation about Al Gore's weight loss as a sign he might enter the race, and chronicles Hillary Clinton's stumbling campaign while Bill Clinton hovers nearby. Trillin documents Barack Obama's cool response to the financial crisis compared to John McCain's more frantic approach. He resurrects forgotten early candidates like George Allen, whom he portrays as cheerful and Reaganesque but dim, and Fred Thompson, whose low energy campaign barely kept him awake. The poet follows the entire arc from the 2006 midterm elections through Barack Obama's victory as the nation's forty fourth president. Between campaign narratives, Trillin inserts standalone pieces like a country song mocking John Edwards' perfect hair despite his mill worker origins and a Sarah Palin tune about her foreign policy credentials based on Alaska's proximity to Russia.
Genres: american, political-science, poetry, biography-memoir, 21st-century, american-history
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: political-commentary, satire
Period: 2006 Midterm Elections, 2008 Presidential Campaign
128 pages · Hardcover · Random House