Too Funny to Be President

Udall, Morris K., Neuman, Bob, and Udall, Randy

ISBN 10: 0805005935 / ISBN 13: 9780805005936

Published by Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1988

About this Item

22 cm, 249 pages. Foreword by Erma Bombeck. Inscribed by the author (Mo Udall). Morris King "Mo" Udall (June 15, 1922 - December 12, 1998) was an American politician who served as a U.S. Representative from Arizona from May 2, 1961 to May 4, 1991. A former professional basketball player with the Denver Nuggets during their National Basketball League period, noted for his liberal views, Udall was a tall (6'5"), Lincolnesque figure with a self-deprecating wit and easy manner. Because of his wit, columnist James J. Kilpatrick deemed him "too funny to be president", which also ended up being the title of his autobiography in the 1980s. Udall earned a law degree from the University of Arizona in 1949. In 1961, his brother Stewart Udall, the congressman for Arizona's 2nd congressional district, was appointed Secretary of the Interior in the Kennedy administration. Udall won a special election for his brother's vacant seat by only 2,000 votes. He won the seat in his own right in 1962, and was reelected 13 more times. He only faced one close race, in 1978, when he received 52 percent of the vote. In 1976, he ran for the Democratic nomination for President as a liberal alternative to Jimmy Carter, the former Governor of Georgia. Mo Udall's humor has a serious side, deflating pretentiousness while getting the job done. "With a bumper crop of presidential candidates surfacing, I have concluded that a plague of presidentialitis has swept the nation. Speaking from experience, I must remind all these worthy contenders that once this dreaded disease- whose symptoms include delusions of grandeur and an urge to make repeated visits to Iowa- gets into a man's bloodstream, it can only be cured by embalming fluid." -Mo Udall. Morris "Mo" Udall, Arizona's Democratic congressman for thirty years, was as well known for his sense of humor as for his dedication to environmental causes. And it was during his 1976 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, when he claims he drew more laughter than votes, that James K. Kilpatrick pronounced him "too funny to be president." Udall kept four black notebooks of jokes that he had collected throughout his public life. Some he heard in the courtroom or on the floor of the House; others he found in old speeches and newspaper articles; still others he swiped on the rubber-chicken circuit. This book, a memoir of Udall's career, collects many of those jokes to create a citizen's guide to the lighter side of politics." After due deliberation and two stiff drinks," Udall writes, "I decided to go ahead and write this book because I'm convinced that humor is as necessary to the health of our political discourse as it is in our private lives." Too Funny To Be President is a testament to the Udall spirit-and an example to all who would win the public's heart. Bookseller Inventory # 38650

Bibliographic Details

Title: Too Funny to Be President

Publisher: Henry Holt and Company, New York

Publication Date: 1988

Binding: Hardcover

Book Condition: very good

Dust Jacket Condition: very good

Signed: Signed by Author(s)

Edition: First Edition. First Printing.

About this title

Synopsis:

A profile of the political career of Democratic Congressman Morris Udall also features an appendix of jokes, stories, and anecdotes arranged by subject

From Publishers Weekly:

A long-time congressman from Arizona, Udall ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976 and, finishing second in any number of primaries, ultimately lost out to Jimmy Carter. One of the reasons for his defeat, he implies here, may have been his irrepressible sense of humor, and he presents examples of it in this lighthearted autobiography. There is serious information about his life and political career, but the book begins and ends with scores of anecdotes, most of them political, from such diverse sources as Leo Tolstoy and Will Rogers. Some of the most telling stories are credited to Mark Twain, Abe Lincoln and Adlai Stevenson, and almost all of them are trenchant and amusing. The editing is haphazard, however, for several of the jokes are repeated.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.