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James Brady 07.10.08, 6:00 AM ET
If this is to be, as the pundits insist, a Democratic election year, journalist and author Susan Mulcahy may have a nifty little hot-seller on her hands. It's a book in which she gets 55 Americans, both celebrated and unknown, to write or say why they are Democrats. No politicians need apply, she stipulates.
Mulcahy and her book Why I'm a Democrat, published last week as a $15 trade paperback by PoliPoint Press of Sausalito, Calif., got their first national TV exposure last Tuesday morning on, of all places, Fox News. Has Roger Ailes gone pinko on us, or do the producers simply think the book is provocative and fun? Ailes once considered putting Mulcahy on TV opposite Mary Matalin when an opening for a "lefty" voice occurred. Susan wasn't particularly interested.
Her résumé is pretty good. Longtime editor of the New York Post's Page Six; Newsday columnist; Avenue magazine editor; early Web content creator as a VP for Paul Allen's Starwave in Seattle; and author of My Lips Are Sealed for Doubleday and this spring's Drawing Fashion: The Art of Kenneth Paul Block, a handsome hundred-dollar coffee table book.
Mulcahy dedicates Why I'm a Democrat to her own mother, "who encouraged all six of her children to be good Democrats," and to her dad, retired head of marketing for Campbell Soup, "a Republican who is having second thoughts."
She takes her book, and her reporting, seriously. Along with the deep, issue-driven and philosophical stuff--and because she has a natural wit and little solemnity--Mulcahy elicits some delightful prose from her respondents.
Here are a few tasty samples:
Screenwriter and journalist Nora Ephron provides 10 reasons for being a Dem, starting with "My parents were Democrats and I barely know a Republican," and ending up with reasons six through 10, "The Supreme Court, The Supreme Court, The Supreme…" repeated over and over.
Filmmaker Paul Weitz offers "When a Democrat lies under oath, it's about oral sex" and "I'd rather be Barney Frank than Larry Craig."
Vanity Fair's Dominick Dunne writes that he used to be a Republican: "I voted for Goldwater and worked for him. My wife and I were on a team with Hedda Hopper, the Hollywood gossip columnist who wore big hats and was so right-wing. I cringe to write this. My life changed when I became a failure. Being poor and being a failure was the best thing that could have happened to me. I didn't have to be talked into becoming a Democrat."
Schoolteacher-turned-best-selling-author Frank McCourt was a Democrat who broke with the party and became an Independent, but he eventually returned. Why did he ditch the party that first time? "I'm always waiting to hear a voice. I admired Clinton but he still wasn't the voice. I wanted him to rise above it, but he was pulled down by his genitalia."
Rock musician Melissa Etheridge harks back to the nation's founders to articulate what she liked about them and where they might fit into today's political spectrum. "Over 200 years ago, those crazy men--Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin. They would be considered crazy hippies now! The pursuit of happiness. That hope, and that dedication to our country, has found its way solely into the Democrat party."
New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast offers her reasons in drawings, starting with "Less fundamentally awful that the Republican Party …" and ending with "I like underdogs."
Mulcahy quotes H. L. Mencken writing in 1949, "In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for. As for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican."
Chairman of Sheridan Broadcasting in Pittsburgh, Ronald Davenport Sr. reports the first Democratic presidential candidate he ever supported was Jack Kennedy. But he didn't vote for him: "I was in the hospital with a ruptured appendix. I was in law school at the time. It happened about a week before the election."
Novelist and magazine writer Tama Janowitz confesses up front that she is herself running for president but that, "Folks, this ain't de Tocqueville talking to you…" and finishes up promising that "[i]f I am elected President … here is what I will do: I will take every man on the Supreme Court and I will impregnate him."
Singer Tony Bennett was a Democrat from childhood because "the Hoover Administration left everybody so stranded. I have never gotten over that." Later, he recalls that he himself "was in the infantry in France and Germany in World War II. We won that one. It was still tough. [Today] what I would like to see is our troops coming home. I can't wait until we get them all home."
Another cartoonist from The New Yorker is Maira Kalman, who prints out, in a whimsical typeface, her philosophy: "I am a Democrat because I have a sense of humor! And a love of people! And Democracy! And strawberry cheesecake! And a love of Spinoza!"
Of course Susan slips Will Rogers in there: "I don't belong to any organized political faith. I am a Democrat."
Do the Republicans have a book like this in them?
http://www.forbes.com/2008/07/09/dem...?feed=rss_news
If this is to be, as the pundits insist, a Democratic election year, journalist and author Susan Mulcahy may have a nifty little hot-seller on her hands. It's a book in which she gets 55 Americans, both celebrated and unknown, to write or say why they are Democrats. No politicians need apply, she stipulates.
Mulcahy and her book Why I'm a Democrat, published last week as a $15 trade paperback by PoliPoint Press of Sausalito, Calif., got their first national TV exposure last Tuesday morning on, of all places, Fox News. Has Roger Ailes gone pinko on us, or do the producers simply think the book is provocative and fun? Ailes once considered putting Mulcahy on TV opposite Mary Matalin when an opening for a "lefty" voice occurred. Susan wasn't particularly interested.
Her résumé is pretty good. Longtime editor of the New York Post's Page Six; Newsday columnist; Avenue magazine editor; early Web content creator as a VP for Paul Allen's Starwave in Seattle; and author of My Lips Are Sealed for Doubleday and this spring's Drawing Fashion: The Art of Kenneth Paul Block, a handsome hundred-dollar coffee table book.
Mulcahy dedicates Why I'm a Democrat to her own mother, "who encouraged all six of her children to be good Democrats," and to her dad, retired head of marketing for Campbell Soup, "a Republican who is having second thoughts."
She takes her book, and her reporting, seriously. Along with the deep, issue-driven and philosophical stuff--and because she has a natural wit and little solemnity--Mulcahy elicits some delightful prose from her respondents.
Here are a few tasty samples:
Screenwriter and journalist Nora Ephron provides 10 reasons for being a Dem, starting with "My parents were Democrats and I barely know a Republican," and ending up with reasons six through 10, "The Supreme Court, The Supreme Court, The Supreme…" repeated over and over.
Filmmaker Paul Weitz offers "When a Democrat lies under oath, it's about oral sex" and "I'd rather be Barney Frank than Larry Craig."
Vanity Fair's Dominick Dunne writes that he used to be a Republican: "I voted for Goldwater and worked for him. My wife and I were on a team with Hedda Hopper, the Hollywood gossip columnist who wore big hats and was so right-wing. I cringe to write this. My life changed when I became a failure. Being poor and being a failure was the best thing that could have happened to me. I didn't have to be talked into becoming a Democrat."
Schoolteacher-turned-best-selling-author Frank McCourt was a Democrat who broke with the party and became an Independent, but he eventually returned. Why did he ditch the party that first time? "I'm always waiting to hear a voice. I admired Clinton but he still wasn't the voice. I wanted him to rise above it, but he was pulled down by his genitalia."
Rock musician Melissa Etheridge harks back to the nation's founders to articulate what she liked about them and where they might fit into today's political spectrum. "Over 200 years ago, those crazy men--Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin. They would be considered crazy hippies now! The pursuit of happiness. That hope, and that dedication to our country, has found its way solely into the Democrat party."
New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast offers her reasons in drawings, starting with "Less fundamentally awful that the Republican Party …" and ending with "I like underdogs."
Mulcahy quotes H. L. Mencken writing in 1949, "In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for. As for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican."
Chairman of Sheridan Broadcasting in Pittsburgh, Ronald Davenport Sr. reports the first Democratic presidential candidate he ever supported was Jack Kennedy. But he didn't vote for him: "I was in the hospital with a ruptured appendix. I was in law school at the time. It happened about a week before the election."
Novelist and magazine writer Tama Janowitz confesses up front that she is herself running for president but that, "Folks, this ain't de Tocqueville talking to you…" and finishes up promising that "[i]f I am elected President … here is what I will do: I will take every man on the Supreme Court and I will impregnate him."
Singer Tony Bennett was a Democrat from childhood because "the Hoover Administration left everybody so stranded. I have never gotten over that." Later, he recalls that he himself "was in the infantry in France and Germany in World War II. We won that one. It was still tough. [Today] what I would like to see is our troops coming home. I can't wait until we get them all home."
Another cartoonist from The New Yorker is Maira Kalman, who prints out, in a whimsical typeface, her philosophy: "I am a Democrat because I have a sense of humor! And a love of people! And Democracy! And strawberry cheesecake! And a love of Spinoza!"
Of course Susan slips Will Rogers in there: "I don't belong to any organized political faith. I am a Democrat."
Do the Republicans have a book like this in them?
http://www.forbes.com/2008/07/09/dem...?feed=rss_news
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