Rating: 
Summary: Who knew Silent Cal was such a funny guy?
Review: I really enjoyed reading Senator Bob Dole's entertaining look at the humor of the American presidents from George Washington to the present. While this book is certainly entertaining, it is also instructive in its own little way. Some former presidents seem to exist in name only, if that, in today's world, and Dole's little collection of quips and stories actually brings a little life into these important men of history. While Dole does not explore the agendas and politics of each president, the sense of personality that comes through in the case of even the most inscrutable of our top public servants is often rather informative. A sense of humor, while far from a qualification for the office, can be a great aid to any president, and Dole emphasizes the point that our greatest presidents have possessed both a funny bone and backbone. Each president gets his own little section of the book, wherein Dole has assembled a number of presidential quotes and stories alongside a number of comments made by politicians and humorists about each president in turn. I can't say that every reference here is funny, but there are some amazingly good zingers included, and I, as a whole, found this book highly entertaining. Dole is a pretty funny man in his own right, and his sense of humor shows in these pages.Dole goes so far as to rank the first 41 (counting Grover Cleveland only once) elected leaders of the free world in terms of their humor, and the fact that the top ten consist of five Democrats and five Republicans is evidence of the total lack of partisanship Dole brings to this endeavor. Topping the list is Abraham Lincoln, and rightfully so; there are plenty of pages detailing the wit of our sixteenth President, a man who said "I laugh because I must not try" during the terribly difficult days of the War Between the States. Second place goes to Ronald Reagan, the Great Communicator and master of the one-liner. Third and fourth place go to Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt, respectively. These top four really stand a world apart from their White House cohorts. Fifth place goes to none other than Calvin Coolidge. Now, this came as something of a surprise to me, but as Dole demonstrates, Silent Cal was indeed quite a jokester and humorist; in fact, the funniest episode recorded in this book, at least in my opinion, is attributed to Coolidge. Kennedy, Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Hoover, and Wilson round out Dole's top ten. As one proceeds through the book, the material for each president significantly decreases; there just isn't a lot of humorous material to work with for those presidents ranking at the bottom of Dole's charts: Taylor, Harding, Van Buren, Buchanan, William Henry Harrison, Pierce, Benjamin Harrison, and poor Millard Fillmore who seems destined to bring up the rear in just about every kind of presidential survey one can devise. If these men ever said one thing funny, Dole includes it, but there are definitely slim pickings here. As for other presidents who may be of special interest to readers, George Bush (number 41) is twelfth, Washington fifteenth, Jefferson sixteenth, Clinton seventeenth, Carter twenty-second, and Nixon twenty-fifth. Since the results of the 2000 election were not known when this book went to the publisher, Dole has included a final chapter devoted to both George W. Bush and Al Gore. Basically, Great Presidential Wit is one of the few politics-related books that both conservatives and liberals can both enjoy equally and civilly, as laughter knows no political party affiliation.
Rating: 
Summary: Funny!
Review: This book contains hilarious quotes and stories by or about all our former Presidents. Dole ranks them in order of how funny they are/were. Bob Dole himself is pretty funny and should know a thing or two about humor, so I guess the list is pretty accurate. As far as I can tell, this book is slightly longer than his previous book, Great Political Wit. It's also not quite as funny as Great Political Wit, mainly because the focus is smaller. Some of our Presidents seemed to have been seriously lacking in the sense of humor department and most of those people only have quotes that poke fun at them, so even those people will still give you a few laughs. It also has some things from and about the newest two to run for office, George W. Bush and Al Gore. This book is definitely worth shelling out 16 bucks for.
Rating:
Summary: Very funny
Review: This book is a collection of short vignettes, either displaying the wit of one of America's presidents, or the wit of someone connected with the president. I must admit that I was quite surprised at the wit of some of them, notably Calvin Coolidge. (Who would have thought it?) The organization of these stories or witticisms into small bites makes this an excellent resource for speech writing. However, some of these stories are so funny that just about anyone will enjoy reading this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Some insight, but no great humor
Review: While this book does provide insights into the lives and minds of former Presidents of the United States, the humor is generally not of the highest quality. The reason for this is obvious, the Presidents of the United States were not funny men. Quite frankly, some in the nineteenth century were men who were compromise candidates chosen more for their perceived weaknesses than strengths. Bob Dole, who tried for the job several times but never made it, places them into eight categories, from " A Class By Themselves" to "The Jokes On Them." The one surprise in the grouping was Calvin Coolidge, who was ranked fifth, right before John Kennedy. Given his public persona, it is amazing that Coolidge would be considered to have been a witty, humorous man.
For those at the bottom, the tales are those that barely raise a ripple in your brow. I understand why Dole would have wanted to include something from every president, but those stories are the major weakness of the book. In some cases, it is necessary to resort to tales of biting sarcasm of others rather than wit.
To appreciate the strongest part of the book, it is necessary to read it from a historical perspective. The early presidents were men of an aristocratic flavor, and were definitely no-nonsense types as they tried to build and advance a young nation with tremendous potential and an experimental government. As the nation became more divided and moved towards an internal war the president was rather a lame figure. The giant of them all was Lincoln, ranked first by Dole and someone who is clearly the best president this country has ever had. He was also someone that you would like on a personal level. Another theme running through the book is how so many presidents viewed it as a prison as much as anything else and were eager to leave the position.
There are few tales in this book that will make you laugh out loud. At best you will chuckle and see some of the former presidents in a way you did not before.
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