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

by Charles Osgood

Overview

Charles Osgood, one of America's favorite news personalities, offers a hilarious compendium of anecdotes from the last seventy years of presidential campaigns.

With anecdotes from Harry Truman to JFK to George W. Bush, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the White House captures the wit and humor of the campaign trail. Culled from speeches, interviews, press conferences, as well as articles written by and about the candidates--no source is left untapped.

From Bob Dole telling reporters after a loss in the primary that "I slept like a baby--every two hours I woke up and cried," and Barry Goldwater's comment that his talkative opponent Hubert Humphreys "has been clocked at 275 words a minute with gusts up to 340," to Adlai Stevenson declaring that "If I talk over the people's head, Ike must be talking under their feet," this is the go-to source for campaign humor.

Just when America most needs a good laugh, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the White House makes the seemingly endless race to the presidency a lot more fun.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781401395384
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	05/13/2008
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	262,261
File size:	946 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Charles Osgood writes and anchors The Osgood File four times daily over the CBS radio network and anchors CBS television's Sunday Morning every week. He is the winner of two Emmys and three Peabody Awards; Washington Journalism Review named him "Best in the Business" five years running; and in 1990 he was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters' Broadcasting Hall of Fame. He lives in New Jersey.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Anyone remotely interested in U.S. history or politics will find this an enjoyable tour." —-Publishers Weekly Starred Review

Editorial Reviews

"Anyone remotely interested in U.S. history or politics will find this an enjoyable tour." ---Publishers Weekly Starred Review

From the Publisher

PRAISE FOR DEFENDING BALTIMORE FROM ENEMY ATTACK

"If you are one of that benighted handful of people who isn't wise to Charles Osgood's incisive and humorous look at the foibles of your fellow men, here is your chance to catch up. Try not to foul up again!"

Walter Cronkite

Sorry the election season's over? Charles Osgood gathers the funniest and weirdest moments of post-WWII presidential politics, starting with Harry S. Truman, whom he calls the first sound-bite candidate, and wrapping up with the Bush-Kerry battle of 2004. In between, he takes on high-profile regional races. Norman Dietz reads this collection of quips and flubs with a voice not unlike the ones listeners might have heard on the stump over the years. Listeners who follow politics will find many of the funny lines familiar. Osgood did his research well, but mostly he lets the anecdotes stand on their own, making the book more nostalgia for those who've lived through the campaigns than history or analysis. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2008 - AudioFile