Posted on 07/09/2004 9:17:41 AM PDT by ZGuy
If It's Not Close, They Can't Cheat: Crushing the Democrats in Every Election and Why Your Life Depends on It
$15.99
[Book Review]
This is a book about winning elections in the gritty new age of American politics where security has trumped almost every other issue and the technology of political effectiveness is evolving with lightning quickness. Hewitt offers real-world tactics for individuals who (1) care about the future of the United States and (2) want to work effectively to help elect candidates who will lead the country--on a national or local level--in the right direction.
In this book, Hugh Hewitt does more than re-hash conservative grievances, preach to the choir, or even preach to the choir plus the undecideds. He aims to change the behavior of the choir, one reader at a time. Hewitt includes material targeted to people of faith when appropriate. But the book appeals to all readers who consider themselves conservative or center-right.
The recklessness of our leaders on security and many other crucial issues has never been clearer, and acting in response to that recklessness has never been so urgent. The silly response is anger. The smart response is winning elections. This is a book about winning elections.
I haven't read the book but the title of your article is right on. The 'Rats don't have to win an election...they just have to get close enough to steal it. Just look at Kennedy's Illinois results in 1960 or Al Gore's results in MI, PA, NM, OR, and Senator Tim Johnson's sqek by in SD in 2000.
LOL!
I love the title of the book. Beyond that, Hugh Hewitt has to be one of the most intelligent and persuasive talk show hosts out there. I really enjoy his show a great deal.
We came a hair's width of losing in 2000 because Florida was close enough to steal. Kudos to the Bush Campaign for fighting the good fight, and winning. Those Congressional aides from the "Republican Riot" are my heroes!
John Ashcroft lost the 2000 U.S. Senate race (Missouri) due to vote fraud (polls in certain neighborhoods fraudulently kept open). He didn't fight it because of the tragic circumstances regarding the death of his original opponent (Mel Carnahan). His widow "won" the election then had the nerve to vote no on his appointment of Attorney General. She was defeated in the special election of 2002 (I forget who defeated her).
Availability: This title will be released on July 22, 2004.
You may order it now and we will ship it to you when it arrives.
Edition: Hardcover
Product Details
- Hardcover: 272 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.02 x 9.28 x 6.46
- Publisher: Nelson Books; (July 22, 2004)
- ISBN: 0785263195
- Amazon.com Sales Rank: 88
July 10, 2004.
Posted at 8:4o AM, PacificExcellent plugs at Powerline, Outside the Beltway, Captain's Quarters, and Country Store have helped keep the rating at Amazon rising for If It's Not Close, They Can't Cheat: Crushing the Democrats in Every Election and Why Your Life Depends Upon It. The book is at number 70 this morning. Thanks to these bloggers and those noted below who have given the book such a big kickstart.-- snip --
My new book, If It's Not Close, They Can't Cheat: Crushing the Democrats in Every Election and Why Your Life Depends Upon It, has now made it into bookstores in various cities, and will arrive at more next week..
Despite what it says at Amazon about a publication date of July 22, Amazon is in fact shipping the books already, and the book is now happily making its way up the Amazon food chain, moving from somewhere in the millions last week, to 47,000 yesterday, and to number 329 as of noon today. Amazon also continues to display the wrong cover, but I don't mind provided they ship the orders.Except for a couple of brief mentions, I have not yet been promoting the book on my radio program, waiting for bookstores to have their copies available before announcing to the radio audience that the most important political book of the year had appeared, and that every listener needed not only his or her own copy, but a dozen copies for the Independents and Democrats in their lives, and another dozen for the Michael Moore fans they know. The book is a blunt assessment of the collapse of the Democratic Party on matters of national security, a vigorous defense of the Bush Administration's record in the war on terror and of the president's leadership generally, and a candid statement of the stakes of the November vote. I expect it to sell well once I start telling the audience about it and begin media interviews next week.
So the book's sales thus far and the consequent rise on Amazon have been powered by the blogosphere. Notice arrived first from the Monkeys, then Fraters, then The Corner and now some other generous bloggers. Thanks to them all, even the rock throwers.
The book does feature a chapter on blogging and politics, an appendix with a beginner's guide to the blogs, as well as jacket blurb from Instapundit --which may be the first blog blurb by Glenn? In any event, though, this medium sells books as blogads everywhere will attest, even those books which elite media disdains to note because of the politics they contain. Of course a book can skyrocket on Amazon with even a single day of brisk sales via the web, but publishers have got to be figuring out that the best investment for their adverting dollar is on the blogs, not in the weekly book reviews...
(If you want OFF - or ON - my "Hugh Hewitt PING list" - please let me know)
The silly response is anger. The smart response is winning elections. This is a book about winning elections.
As a wise man once said, "Don't get mad..get even.
I get THE biggest kick out of going to Barnes & Noble for these types of books.
:-)
This is a book about winning elections.Amen ! Do like I do (and see my tagline):
Vote Straight Ticket GOP !!!
Bump. We can use a book about winning elections!
So the book's sales thus far and the consequent rise on Amazon have been powered by the blogosphere. Notice arrived first from the Monkeys, then Fraters, then The Corner and now some other generous bloggers. Thanks to them all, even the rock throwers.And, from infinitemonkeysblog.com:
June 24, 2004
We're So Vain, We Probably Thought The Book Was About Us
One of the best parts of my job—aside from the large weekly ration of booze and the hot- and cold-running chicks, I mean—is receiving dozens upon dozens of books in the mail every week from publishers, for free. Granted, most of these are not, if you will pardon the cliche, worth the paper they're printed on. Even though I've grown accustomed to disappointment ("Oh great, the new Chalmers Johnson is here..."), I don't think a day has gone by in the last four years when I haven't felt at least a little twinge of excitement over the latest arrival.
Hugh Hewitt's new book, If It's Not Close, They Can't Cheat, arrived today, a week before it's due to hit store shelves, and I must admit that I was excited as a kid on Christmas morning. "Splendid! Who will Hugh slander now?" I wondered aloud to nobody in particular.To which nobody in particular replied: "Slander is spoken. When it's in print, it's called libel."
"Yes, of course, quite right," I said. "Now pipe down, or it's back to the cornfield with you!"
"Now, see here...!," Nobody cried, stopping short with a choking gasp as I struck him hard with my palm, right in the Adam's apple...
But I digress.
The subtitle of Hugh's book is "Crushing the Democrats in Every Election and Why Your Life Depends on It." That is, I think you will agree, a pretty bold statement. It is something of a departure, too, from his previous book, which instructs Christians on how to make their way in this rough-and-tumble world of ours. But, despite Hewitt's reputation for shucking and jiving, the title is fitting. We are at war, after all. The War on Terrorism is a real war, not one of those fake wars Americans have grown so cynical about, like the War on Drugs, the War on Poverty, or the Spanish-American War. As Hewitt writes in the introduction,
The book's premise is quite simple: there are millions of people who would like to see the United States destroyed, or if not destroyed, then deeply wounded and humbled. Among these millions are the tens of thousands of terrorists or would-be terrorists actively engaged in an effort to inflict such injuries upon the United States so as to unhinge it or cower it......we are entering a political season unlike any other in the country's history. Never before has a presidential election been conducted in the course of a war the very reality of which is denied by a significant portion of the population.
...The war in which we find ourselves is likely to continue for many election cycles. It is the single issue on which the campaign of 2004 ought to be conducted, and almost certainly the single issue on which the campaigns of 2006, 2008, and beyond ought to be conducted.
There you have it. The 255 pages or so that follow are devoted to hammering that point home. Since I only got the book this afternoon, I can't pretend to have read much more than a few dozen pages. Like Hewitt's last book, In, But Not Of, most of the chapters are very short, and read fast. He urges Republicans to set aside some of their more strident positions in favor of defeating Democrats. "This isn't a policy wonk book," he writes at the beginning of his chapter on "Abortion, Guns, and the Environment." "It is about winning elections in a time of war when bad electoral results can disable a war effort and result in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans. Because the focus is on winning elections, it is necessary to look at particular issues from the perspective of whether they advance the cause of electing candidates who will defend the country vigorously and effectively." Single-issue "absolutists" don't fare will in Hugh's book. "The time and money that gun absolutists spend attacking GOP politicians who embrace the consensus position [on gun control, i.e., banning so-called assault weapons] are wasted. Put the effort into strengthening the party across the board." And so on.
I'll confess to looking first for the one chapter I knew would be of special interest to me, and to my fellow monkeys. It comes about two-thirds of the way through the book, under the heading "Controlling the Information Flow, Part 4: Using the Blogosphere." He also includes an appendix, which he calls "A Beginner's Guide to Blogs."
It's... well, it's exactly what I've come to expect from Hugh. Did you know he's an attorney and a former employee of a certain Richard Milhous Nixon? I'm not saying that makes him a bad guy. On the contrary, I'm simply suggesting that he would stick a shiv in you if it served his purpose. But at least he'd be good enough to look you in the eye when he did it. He might even smile.
Anyway, here's what Nix..., er, Hewitt, has to say about blogging. "The two most annoying blogs in the world are Fraters Libertas, and Infinite Monkeys. Read them only with extreme caution."
And that's basically it. Oh, there's some other general stuff about how blogging is a growing and important medium, blah-de-blah-de-blah. "Blog is short for 'Web log,'" he usefully informs us. "There are millions of blogs..." And so on. You get the idea.
But enough about that. Let's get back to those "annoying blogs."
Annoying? Annoying?!? That's Messrs. Annoying to you, Nationally Syndicated Talk Show Guy! Call us vain, if you like. And pompous. And drunk. But, please, do call us.
One last thing: Hewitt needs to find a better publisher. I'm sure the people at Nelson Books (a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers) are fine, upstanding human beings. But the book is printed on very cheap paper—slightly better than paperback quality for a hardcover book. I mention this because, despite Hugh's cheap shots and typically smug assertions, the book deserves to be read, if only for the quotes at the beginning of each section. However, it's difficult to read when you've spilled your rum-and-cranberry juice cocktail on pages 188 through 209 (hypothetically speaking, of course; your spills may vary...).
If It's Not Close... is due to hit bookstores on July 1. Read it, but, by all means, exercise "extreme caution."
Posted by Ben at June 24, 2004 12:02 AM | TrackBack
What a brilliant and critical book...
How I adore Hugh Hewitt :-)
This election is going to based on turnout. We need to get our souls to the polls on Nov. 2. If Kerry wins, then Osama wins.
"I get THE biggest kick out of going to Barnes & Noble for these types of books."
For me, I'll only go to "Barnes & Liberal" if I can't wait for a good conservative book; if I can wait, it's the Conservative Book Club.
This looks like another "can't-miss" book. "Misunderestimated" was like that for me...I didn't want to wait three weeks for it to come in the mail, so I got it at B&L. Godspeed, Hugh.
No Barnes and Noble in my little town here. Curious about what you mean. Is it a big liberal company or something?
That's my understanding of it. I DO know that I REALLY ticked off an Arab one time when I was in his line to buy American Jihad.
I've NEVER had a sales clerk be rude to little ole me till that time. It felt SOOOOOOOOOO good.
Wasn't THAT a good book? WOW! If you've not read Ronald Reagan's autobiography, I'd recommend that one, too. Why, if you go to Amazon and do some hunting around...there WAS one w/both his and Nancy's signatures in it! For the bargain basement price of $2,500!!!
Well, I probably should have figured it out from the latte bars.
Now wait a minute here. I LOVE Starbucks! :-)
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