While political autobiographies usually are among the most despicable literary genres, as a service to our readers we shall point to three books "written" by the three main candidates to the nomination: Living History by Hillary Clinton, Dreams of My Father, by Barack Obama (I sogni di mio padre in Italian) and Worth The Fighting For by John McCain.As for Hillary Clinton, a much better work is the in-depth
biography by Carl Bernstein, the stubborn muckraker of Watergate fame, who left the "Washington Post" several years ago and has produced a nuanced portrait of the former First Lady: "A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton," now in paperback.Of course, the phenomenon of the last two weeks has been senator Barack Obama, of whom you should read "Dreams of My Father," even if the book is much less charismatic than the author on stage.
McCain's book is interesting because it includes a chapter where he details how Karl Rove's dirty-tricks machine derailed his candidature in South Carolina eigth years ago. "Bush's brain" spread the slander that McCain had fathered an illegittimate child with a black prostitute, and that was enough for Republican voters to switch to Dubya in 2000. This year, trying to court the hardcore Republican base, McCain stated that he has only admiration for "Rove's political mind." Is this the truly independent candidate, the "maverick" of the Republican party?
