Rating: 
Summary: Great!!!
Review: I was never really interested in politics before I read this book. But I've admired and respected Paul Wellstone for a long time, and after his death I was very interested in what he had done in his political life before I became aware of politics (I didn't start really listening until a couple years ago, just before I grew old enough to vote). This book caught my attention and got me interested in the political world and how the laws that are made in Washington DC affect people like me and those around me here in Minnesota. It really does make me want to be active in supporting change for the better. Paul Wellstone will always be a personal hero of mine.
Rating:
Summary: An inspiring book
Review: I was never really interested in politics before I read this book. But I've admired and respected Paul Wellstone for a long time, and after his death I was very interested in what he had done in his political life before I became aware of politics (I didn't start really listening until a couple years ago, just before I grew old enough to vote). This book caught my attention and got me interested in the political world and how the laws that are made in Washington DC affect people like me and those around me here in Minnesota. It really does make me want to be active in supporting change for the better. Paul Wellstone will always be a personal hero of mine.
Rating: 
Summary: Congressman Second District of Illinois
Review: Impressive work by Senator Paul Wellstone, who would have been my presidential preference in the 2000 Democratic Primary had he chosen to run. Senator Wellstone is the last of the Breed in the United States Senate who genuinely believes the nation can change. The Conscience of a Liberal shows the passion of the Senator and recognizes there is unfinished business at the center of our nations history that this generation of Americans has a responsibility to change. Sen. Wellstone has the courage to do something about it. Both sides in Washington are fighting for Bi-partisanship. Given the history of bi-partisan compromises like those of 1820-1850's, we need more than bi-partisanship to reclaim this Democracy, we need the Conscience of a True Liberal. Well done.
Rating:
Summary: Politically Refreshing
Review: It is nice to know that some decency still exists among all of the greed and power in Washington. Paul Wellstone has made it a priority to fight for those who can't afford to hire a lobbyist. This book demonstrates his uphill fight against the money and the power brokers in DC. Even if you disagree with Wellstone politically, it would be difficult not to welcome his honest and sincere attitude towards the process. This is a must read for any progressive.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing Dumbed-Down McBook
Review: Paul Wellstone's dumbed-down opuscula is too much like the McBooks churned out by stand-up comics turned sitcom stars looking for a fast buck than it is a serious book on public policy. While the book isn't quite as anorexic as it appears (a word count would come out to roughly 75,000 words, helped by microscopic type), it has no index. You would think that an ostensibly serious book on public policy would have one, but you'd be wrong.The prose style is simple (the cynical would say simple minded). Declarative sentences. Short ones. Avoid commas whenever possible. Write short. And snappy. With exclamation points! Senator Wellstone seems to be addicted to exclamation points, which he tosses around like the chocolate sprinkles you'd put on an ice cream cone. It gets to the point where their overuse becomes unintentionally funny. There are occasions where Wellstone writes well, usually when he is personally engaged with a subject. When he writes about his father (who died of Parkinson's) or his brother (who battled mental illness) his prose becomes sincere and heartfelt, and the exclamation points virtually disappear. And I have to say that two of the final three chapters (Chapters 7 and 8) are much better than the first three, which sound like they were written by someone else entirely. Did Wellstone think he had to dumb-down the opening in order to get them to continue to read it long enough to get to the serious parts? Or did different members of his staff work on various sections of the book without consulting each other? I have no idea, but it certainly feels like different parts were written by different people. Senator Wellstone is a potent figure in American politics, but this book is a poor introduction to his life and thought. While at least one chapter ("Democracy for the Few") is essential reading for anyone who wants to know how our government operates, it's not enough for me to recommend this depressingly skimpy book.
Rating:
Summary: great book
Review: read it, recommend it to friends. more people need to see it
Rating:
Summary: Great Book!!!
Review: The late Paul Wellstone puts together a great story of how he became who he is...a liberal and proud of it. So often these days, we hear the word liberal used in the pejorative sense. That doesn't have to be. I prefer to think of liberals as "free thinkers," who don't happen to march in line like Limbaugh and Hannity...and don't forget Jessie Helms. Wellstone was a great and HONEST politician. This world of Bill Clintons and Jack Ryans needs more honest politicians with the enthusiastic spirit of Wellstone! TWO THUMBS UP!! Jeffrey McAndrew
author of "Our Brown-Eyed Boy"
Rating:
Summary: Great Book!!!
Review: The late Paul Wellstone puts together a great story of how he became who he is...a liberal and proud of it. So often these days, we hear the word liberal used in the pejorative sense. That doesn't have to be. I prefer to think of liberals as "free thinkers," who don't happen to march in line like Limbaugh and Hannity...and don't forget Jessie Helms. Wellstone was a great and HONEST politician. This world of Bill Clintons and Jack Ryans needs more honest politicians with the enthusiastic spirit of Wellstone! TWO THUMBS UP!! Jeffrey McAndrew
author of "Our Brown-Eyed Boy"
Rating:
Summary: remembering Paul
Review: The other morning on one of the Sunday chat shows, a so-called "objective" political pundit referred to the late Senator as "a far-out liberal" with "extreme ideas." Is this how far we have fallen under Bush II? Is it "far-out" to believe that people are more important than profits? Is it "extreme" to feel that the American government should belong to the American people and not multinational corporations? Is the belief that, to quote populist commentator Jim Hightower, "everybody does better when everybody does better" just a naive, "liberal" pipe dream? Wellstone understood, as perhaps no other U.S. Senator does, that the main reason why the 2000 presidential election was so close was that voters accurately failed to discern much difference between centrist Bush and centrist Gore. Senator Wellstone was different, God bless him. Not only did he actually believe what he said, he acted on those beliefs, opinion polls be damned. The greatest tribute those of us who still believe in a just and fair American can pay to him is not just to read this book--although it's a start. We must now organize and run for office ourselves in order to restore democratic ideals to the Democratic party and to the White House. May this be Paul Wellstone's legacy.
Rating:
Summary: A great book by one of the greatest senators of our time!!
Review: This book chronicles the political life of Senator Paul Wellstone (D-Minnesota), a progressive liberal, New Deal-type senator that is a rare breed in today's "New Democrat" politics. It started with how he got started his political career as a grassroot organizer in a rural Minnesota county, his first Senate election in 1990, which he won despite the fact that he raised very little money and was labeled a lost cause by the Democratic party establishment, and then went on to describe his senate career, which he described as more "playing defense to the Republican attacks" than playing offense and pushing for new progressive initiatives (such as a national health insurance program), because such programs are not going to be supported even within today's Democratic party. He then proposed that to create a new progressive majority and to enact progressive policies, we have to elect new progressive politicians, which have to be backed up by grassroots organizing directed toward the democrats constituencies, both old (labor unions) and new (recent immigrants). It is sad that Wellstone would never see the reemergence of the Progressives, because of his untimely dead last month. It is the job of us as Progressive Democrats to make his dreams come true and to build a new America based on Progressive policies.
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