by Dave Barry

Sensing a need for a thoughtful, balanced book to explain our deeply troubling national political process, Dave Barry has not even come close. Still, though he has covered every presidential campaign since 1984 for The Miami Herald, has run for president several times, and run for cover at the rainy inauguration of George W. Bush (the man will stop at nothing for his art), Barry has nonetheless outdone himself in this book.

Here is Barry’s stirring account of how the new nation was formed—and farmed. Here, also, is his answer to the need for a truly memorable new Declaration of Independence (”Whereas in the course of human events it behooves us, the people, not to ask What can our country do for us, anyway? but rather, whether we have anything to fear except fear itself“). There is, too, a revised Constitution for our times (”Section 2: The House of Representatives shall be composed of persons who own at least two dark suits and have not been indicted recently“).

Dave also cracks the income tax code and explains the growth(s) of government, congressional hearing difficulties, and the persistent rumors of influence of capital in the Capitol. Pay particular attention to the footnotes – some say they are worth the price of admission.*

Finally, he out-Fodors Fodor’s in his guide to the politics of Florida, home of the Katherine Harris Eyelash Museum, while his advice on hotspots in Washington, D.C., should end class trips forever.

The New York Times has pronounced Dave Barry “the funniest man in America.” But of course that could have been on a slow news day when there wasn’t much else fit to print.

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