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Summary: of course, he's right. The internet will be the government
Review: Basically what Dick Morris and Matt Drudge have both realized, is that as the cost of communication drops to zero, the political and media institutions that have been based on restricted access to information and power, will be drastically re-formed. Not the sham 'campaign reform' which has been the successful creation of an incumbancy entitlement, but rather the true reformation of participatory democracy. There will be excesses and adjustments. The process is in its infancy, but Morris has seen the trend for what it is. Those who don't like Dick Morris should still recognize him for what he is, the most brilliant mind in politics who is willing to speak his mind. (There may be more brilliant individuals, but they don't tell us what they are really thinking.) If you don't read this book, some of these changes may take you by surprise. If you want to help shape the political future, please read this book.
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Summary: The Lost Legend of the First Christmas
Review: Being an avid horseman all my life, I skepticly read this book thinking just another horse story. I was pleasantly surprised to find such a captivating story based on the possible events preceding Christ's birth. A definite Christmas gift for all of my Grandchildren.
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Summary: This book is wrong on all counts
Review: How anyone can truly believe Dick Morris would have anything to say of value is beyond me. What a complete waste of money - thankfully I charged it to the taxpayers - just like my New York trips. The book read like a self-promotion for the website. His comments on how Alan Keyes won the first debate are very far off, it only means Keyes made sure his supporters voted.
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Summary: repetitive, repetitive fluffy ad for the vote.com website
Review: I bought this book at an airport before a long flight. I'd finished it by the time I had reached my destination 4 hours later. My biggest issue with the book after the first couple chapters was that it was filled with sweeping generalizations after sweeping generalizations with nothing to back them up. If you want to hear "the internet will revolutionize our lives" and "the internet is revolutionary" over and over and yes, over again, then you might find this book interesting. After I managed to get over the generalizations, I realized that book is really an advertisement for the vote.com website! I found very little substance in this book and was extremely disappointed that such an exciting topic could be brought down to such a low point.
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Summary: Some technical underpinnings behind his concepts.
Review: I don't pretend to know how many of his predictions will come about, but his comments about web site development, traffic generation and cost are right on. If it is available, you can register a domain name of your choice(...). This gives you a worldwide platform from which to present your views. It has room enough to hold hundreds of pages of text and images that support whatever position you choose. If you are clever, funny, interesting, people will find it. Never in history has it been possible for an individual to make his/her thoughts so available for so little. He is also right about the established parties not getting it. Just for fun, take a tour of web sites. Try to connect to each states abbreviation + GOP and then .com .net .org For example, what is displayed at TXGOP.net. Lest you think I am bashing Republicans here, consider that there is no reason Democrats or others can't register such domains and use them as a platform in the "enemy camp". You will find that some are for sale, many are registered but not hosted, so they show "error 500 server errors", few understand the concept of reserving multiple domains and redirecting to your main site. Most have that "Corporate" = Boring feel to them. Only one was funny. There is clearly opportunity waiting for someone to exploit this. I found his insights very helpful in thinking about the possible application of these concepts in the real world.
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Summary: Some technical underpinnings behind his concepts.
Review: I don't pretend to know how many of his predictions will come about, but his comments about web site development, traffic generation and cost are right on. If it is available, you can register a domain name of your choice(...). This gives you a worldwide platform from which to present your views. It has room enough to hold hundreds of pages of text and images that support whatever position you choose. If you are clever, funny, interesting, people will find it. Never in history has it been possible for an individual to make his/her thoughts so available for so little. He is also right about the established parties not getting it. Just for fun, take a tour of web sites. Try to connect to each states abbreviation + GOP and then .com .net .org For example, what is displayed at TXGOP.net. Lest you think I am bashing Republicans here, consider that there is no reason Democrats or others can't register such domains and use them as a platform in the "enemy camp". You will find that some are for sale, many are registered but not hosted, so they show "error 500 server errors", few understand the concept of reserving multiple domains and redirecting to your main site. Most have that "Corporate" = Boring feel to them. Only one was funny. There is clearly opportunity waiting for someone to exploit this. I found his insights very helpful in thinking about the possible application of these concepts in the real world.
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Summary: Laughably inept
Review: If Morris's understanding of politics is half as shaky as his grasp of the Internet, it's a miracle that his political career lasted as long as it did. This book is utterly useless from political, technological, and sociological angles. In fact, I'm hard pressed to think of anything in here that's of any use to any reader.
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Summary: It all sounds so plausible on paper
Review: In Vote.com Dick Morris would have us believe that our form of government will soon be transformed by direct access to information sources not beholden to big-money interests and their lobbyists, by direct participation of the public in voting on every issue of the day (opinion polls), and that the elected officials will be forced to listen. This sounds great unless one actually looks at the situation with one's own eyes. Unfortunately, like the internet, Vote.com is a mile wide and an inch deep. It is basically a long winded advertisement for Dick's website of the same name. If one troubles themselves to actually look at what Morris is talking about, his vision and reality scarcely meet. Most of the news information on the internet is controlled by those same corporate entities that control the print and broadcast media. If Morris is right, and Matt Drudge and his ilk are the answer, one is forced to wonder what the question is. An information system based on what any crackpot that can put together a website cares to say? Thanks, but no thanks. More damaging is to compare the Vote.com website results with polls conducted by Gallop and other established sources, or with the voting in the last election. The polls on the Vote.com website routinely reflect a very substantially more conservative pattern than the general population polls and actual election results do. All the Vote.com website has done is to quantify the demographics of the the people that frequent that site, as distinct from the general population. The results of the polls reflect the attitudes of a demographic that is more significantly more affluent than the mean, and more heavily caucasian as well. Yet another effort to exclude the have nots from the process? Lets see, first we were only getting rid of the big money and lobbyists, now it's anyone that isn't net capable? What other groups would Morris have us exclude from this new world order? One must keep in mind that he internet isn't free. There are many families in our great land to whom $20 per month, plus the computer to access it, would represent an insurmountable barrier. While not many would argue that the internet will have no effect on the political process, the fantasy that Dick Morris spins is certainly not supported by any evidence that is apparent. Is it simply too early yet, or does his hypothesis miss the proverbial broad side of the barn? Arguing that the population, most of whom would have a tough time identifying their congressional representatives in a lineup, will decide issues by direct vote is laughable, and if it were to come to pass would be truly frightening. In a country where it's tough to get 50% of the people to take 15 minutes of their time to vote on issues as fundamental regarding their well being as sanitary sewers, it seems a hard case to make that this same group of people with suddenly be motivated into paying attention, and embued with some superior wisdom that will make our current system of government suddenly obsolete. Our present system may not be perfect, but after reading Vote.com, and after observing the Vote.com website since it's inception, I am more thankful than ever for our present system.
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Summary: INTERNET FEVER TO DESTROY AMERICA.?
Review: It is hard to find a book more self-assured and more mistaken than this one.It is entirely built on the tired, old, and completely mistaken assumption that the battle between Democrats& Republicans is over. Vote.Com, (that's the book's name) can then apparently provide a new direction for America. The audacity of this conclusion is nothing less than absurd. The books claims that the essential Republican ideas thought up by William Buckley Jr. in the 1950's are now irrelevant since they have prevailed. The Cold War is won, crime is down, welfare is reformed, the budget is balanced, and the economy is booming. Then he claims that the current US Government, especially the Congress, is bought and paid for by special interests. Lastly, he claims that the American electorate is always right and by directly soliciting their wisdom, through the Internet, we can avoid the bought and paid for Congress and somehow reach Nirvana. The obvious truth is: 1) Republican ideology has become mainstream and perhaps did save the world but it has by no means prevailed. Hillary Clinton wanted to and almost succeeded in nationalizing health care. Republicans and Democrats fight tooth and nail; often to a draw in the Congress because the Republicans have not prevailed; certainly not while they are, generally speaking, for smaller gov't while the gov't spends, conservatively, $100,000 for every household in America. 2) Vote. Com claims that the Congress is bought and paid for by special interests and this is evil, but it acknowledges that under the current evil system the Cold War is won, crime is down, welfare is reformed, the budget is balanced, and the economy is booming with wide participation. This book and others would have us believe that the Stalinists buy the gov't one year and then the Communists buy it the next. In fact, nothing remotely similar to this happens. If a Congressman did sell out to, say, a Stalinist or even any moderate extremist of any sort the media and electorate would immediately dispatch him. 3) Vote.com's idea that all wisdom resides with the electorate is completely crazy and thankfully completely unconstitutional. We live in a constitutional, representative republic so that power is diffused in a constitution, the media, the electorate, the branches of federal and state gov't, and the business community, precisely so no one special interest can prevail. The Vote. Com idea of scrapping the best system of gov't in the history of the world to give complete power to the electorate when an average member of the electorate can't tell you who the Vice President is, is just plain off the wall crazy. Power to the people is the old strategy used well by the Communists to recruit a peasant army and secure power and apparently the same strategy used by Vote.com to promote another very bad idea. If you are interested in a realistic look at the issues that face America read "Understanding The Difference Between Democrats and Republicans." It is the classic on the single most important issue of politics. You can bet that each time you walk into a voting booth for the rest of your life it is the understanding on which you and eventually your children will be asked to vote. If you know about the 200 year old struggle between Democratic and Republican ideology that has shaped and built America you know about politics. Why bother with those who try to distract us, for whatever reason, from the very old but very critical issues of American public life.
Rating: 
Summary: Gems buried very deeply
Review: Morris' "Vote.com" is poorly written, poorly edited, and repetitious. If you have the patience to muddle through, however, there are insights to be gleaned. This would have made a good 28-page paper.
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