The greatest
achievement of this book is a
deconstruction of
Reaganomics--it's so well-explained, and although serious, also very funny. It's clear enough to even give your average
conservative pause.
It's also a book that makes you feel good about being to the left and that we're all not bedwetting liberals.
Well, yeah, it's not the quintessential work of American liberalism, and he is playing it for laughs, but there are some good points made in the book. From the time, as well, it was an expression of the hypocrisy Franken saw in some of the Contract With America conservatives who touted family values while philandering and divorcing and just being mean.
And, also, to be fair, Rush Limbaugh is not fat anymore since he's been married to his aerobics instructor wife. I guess the third time is the charm. In fact, this was not lost on Al Franken--this is what Al had to say about it in The Nation earlier this year:
Which brings me to the "big fat" part. When Rush was last on TV regularly, he was very, very, very fat. And that, I think, is one of the reasons he wants the (Monday Night Football) job. Since my book came out, Rush has lost a lot of weight, and I don't blame him for wanting America to see that he is no longer, as doctors put it, "morbidly obese." The reality is, I saved the man's life, halting his slide into food-assisted suicide. Has he thanked me? No.