AMUSING AND RELEVANT "HANDBOOK" FOR UPCOMING ELECTIONS

Michael Moore is a "love him or hate him" kind of guy. I'm generally in the former category although I admit he sometimes goes a little overboard in his presentation of his ideas.

However, I enjoyed and agreed with nearly every thing in Moore's "Roger & Me", "Bowling for Columbine", "Fahrenheit 9/11", and "Sicko".
I've also read three of his books, "Downsize This", "Stupid White Men" and "Dude, Where's My Country" and I approve of most of his messages therein.

Moore was born near Flint Michigan back in the days that General Motors was the king of the automotive industry. Both his father and grandfather worked in assembly lines for the corporate giant. Moore was probably destined for the same work but he instead became a political writer and film writer with very little formal education. It's obvious, however, that Moore is a quick study and can very capably present his views in any medium.

When I picked up this "Election Guide", I thought that it would contain mostly humorous comments on the current state of elective politics in this country. That is true for the first portion of the book which is entitled "Ask Mike!" However, even in that section, Moore attacks the Bush administration's total failures very effectively with biting sarcasm.

The first section contains questions from a variety of "everyday folk" on the issues of the day: Iraq, energy, the economy. Examples of the supposedly real questions include:

"When a Republican wears a little American flag lapel pin, what is he trying to say?" Moore answers that it depends on which side of his jacket he wears the pin. "If it's on the left, he's saying that he's pretending to be patriotic and could actually care less about America, unless there's a no-bid contract somewhere in it for him. If it's on the right, it means he's gay.

Moore goes on to answer questions about Weapons of Mass Destruction, Obama's inability to bowl, religion in the election process and gay rights. Most of his answers are bitingly amusing.

The second section of the book also contains humor but it is much more serious in its message. The title of Chapter Two is:

"How to Elect John McCain...or, How Many Democrats Does It Take to Lose the Most Winnable Presidential Election in American History?"

Moore goes on to point out that one way to lose this election is to follow the recent examples of both Kerry and Gore. Moore gives a number of specific areas which Obama and other Democrats need to avoid such forgetting the historic importance of women in this election, continually praising McCain without adequately attacking his policies, and failing to answer "Swift boat-like attacks".

I know Moore wrote the book before the recent attacks on Obama and Obama's response to those attacks, but it's possible that his book has had some influence on the Obama camp. However, I have noted during the entire, way-too-long election campaign, that Senator Obama and his staff has been quick to respond to the lies the republicans spew about him.

The next section of the book is entitled "Ten Presidential Decrees for His First Ten Days." For the most part these decrees are very serious and somewhat controversial. For example, the first "decree" is to bring back the draft. Moore gives some good reasons for that but it would be hard to sell. One decree I found interesting is "Ban High Fructose Corn Syrup". Moore says that this product was introduced in the 70's and is one of the biggest reasons for the obesity increase. Moore has lost almost 100 pounds so he can effectively point out such problems.

I found the most useful part of the book to be the next section which calls for six "Modest Proposals to Fix Our Broken Elections." I won't mention all of them but Moore does call for a needed reduction of the elective process, less corporate funding, holding elections on the weekends and using paper ballots.

His next section of the book concerns "Articles of Impeachment" for both Bush and Cheney. This section is controversial but has some definite validity although I personally think it's too late to do anything. Actually, Moore doesn't call so much for impeachment as he does the imprisonment of those responsible for the War in Iraq, the loss of freedoms of Americans citizens and the torturing of prisoners by U.S. soldiers.

The last section of the book gives 12 Senatorial races and 30 House contests which Democrats can pick up in order to get a greater majority in both the Senate and the House. This is important in case McCain somewhat wins and the Congress needs to be veto proof or, if Obama wins, the Congress can be fillibuster proof.

This "little book" contains a lot of humor but, more importantly, it also contains specific information that could be useful in deciding this next election.

While Moore may not have much formal education, I found the style and content of the his writing to be very professional. The book is a very quick read of 249 pages with just the right mix of satirical humor and serious prose

While I believe that many more Democrats will read this book than Republicans, I also feel that the entire country could benefit from some of Moore's proposed changes to our election process.

FIVE STARS