BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Calvin Trillin's Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin.
Displaying the form that made bestsellers of Obliviously On He Sails and A Heckuva Job, tales of the Bush Administration in rhyme, Calvin Trillin trains his verse on the 2008 race for the presidency.
Deciding the Next Decider is an ongoing campaign narrative in verse interrupted regularly by other poems, such as a country tune about John Edwards called âYes, I Know Heâs a Mill Workerâs Son, But Thereâs Hollywood in That Hairâ and a Sarah Palin song about her foreign policy credentials: âOn a Clear Day, I See Vladivostok.â It covers Mitt Romneyâs transformation (âMitt Romneyâ s saying now he should have known / A stem cellâs just a human, not quite grownâ), the speculation about whether Al Gore was trimming down to run (âPresumably, they looked for photo ops / To see what Gore was stuffing in his chopsâ), the slow-motion implosion of Hillary Clintonâs drive to the White House (âSome pundits wrote that Hilâs campaign might fare / A little better if Bill wasnât thereâ), and the differing responses of Barack Obama and John McCain to the financial crisis (âThough coolness has its limitations, itâll / Prevent comparisons with Chicken Littleâ).
Beginning at the 2006 midterms, Deciding the Next Decider resurrects the nonstarters like George Allen (âHe fit whatâs often valued by the Right: / Quite cheerful, Reaganesque, and not too brightâ) and the low-energy Fred Thompson (âThe pros said, âThatâs a state he has to take, / And he just might, if he can stay awakeâ â). And it carries through to the vote that made Barack Obama the forty-fourth president of the United States.
BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Calvin Trillin's Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin.
Displaying the form that made bestsellers of Obliviously On He Sails and A Heckuva Job, tales of the Bush Administration in rhyme, Calvin Trillin trains his verse on the 2008 race for the presidency.
Deciding the Next Decider is an ongoing campaign narrative in verse interrupted regularly by other poems, such as a country tune about John Edwards called âYes, I Know Heâs a Mill Workerâs Son, But Thereâs Hollywood in That Hairâ and a Sarah Palin song about her foreign policy credentials: âOn a Clear Day, I See Vladivostok.â It covers Mitt Romneyâs transformation (âMitt Romneyâ s saying now he should have known / A stem cellâs just a human, not quite grownâ), the speculation about whether Al Gore was trimming down to run (âPresumably, they looked for photo ops / To see what Gore was stuffing in his chopsâ), the slow-motion implosion of Hillary Clintonâs drive to the White House (âSome pundits wrote that Hilâs campaign might fare / A little better if Bill wasnât thereâ), and the differing responses of Barack Obama and John McCain to the financial crisis (âThough coolness has its limitations, itâll / Prevent comparisons with Chicken Littleâ).
Beginning at the 2006 midterms, Deciding the Next Decider resurrects the nonstarters like George Allen (âHe fit whatâs often valued by the Right: / Quite cheerful, Reaganesque, and not too brightâ) and the low-energy Fred Thompson (âThe pros said, âThatâs a state he has to take, / And he just might, if he can stay awakeâ â). And it carries through to the vote that made Barack Obama the forty-fourth president of the United States.