Great Presidential Wit: I Wish I Was in the Book

As the title implies, this is a fairly thin book, and the compiler, former Senator Robert Dole, could have profitably cut it to one-third of its length. With a few noteworthy exceptions - Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, and John Kennedy - American presidents have been remarkably unfunny men, alternating instead between dourness and dyspepsia. Most of the "jokes" in this volume were either insults that one or another president hurled at bystanders, or genuinely funny remarks made by someone associated with a particular president. Dole, whose own sense of humor was notably absent during his run for the presidency, makes a sincere but unsuccessful effort to stretch out a handful of presidential bons mots to 240 pages. In sum: Not Recommended.