All Politics Is Local: And Other Rules of the Game

Rating:
Summary: Very Informative and Very Entertaining
Review: 1/14/05 Former Speaker of the House, Tip O'Neill in this non-fiction, makes politics seem like the most enjoyable and most honest of professions.

Rating:
Summary: Some information on the book
Review: I enjoyed reading this book even though I had to do a report on it. The main point of the book was to show that politics is about one's values combined with instincts; it is basically one's common sense. Some implications were: Though many candidates think it is essential to use the new campaigning and advertising strategies and technology to raise money, it is also important to remember that if the candidate and his issues find favor in the people's eyes, then many would gladly provide financial support when they are simply asked to. If one is loving and honest towards his constituents then his constituents will be honest and loving towards him. If you have clout and use it then many times you can even convince your most powerful opponents to take your side.
I believe the author's thesis to be true because politics is all about how well you know how to deal with people and the right thing to say at the right time, and that is basically what common sense is. Of course reputation, clout, and money are very influential, but if you are a good at politics and have good common sense, those will come in due time. I would recommend this book because it offers a different perspective than what government books give you. All Politics is Local and other rules of the game provides common sense that people interested in politics should know.

Rating:
Summary: A bit of political wit and wisdom.
Review: O'Neill displays his vast wit and wisdom in an entertaining series of stories from his political career and life. Politics may seem complicated and confusing at times but the former Speaker proves that the game is played on a short list of general rules that should always be followed. As one reviewer said, it makes for good bathroom reading with its short, entertaining stories.

Rating:
Summary: A Marvelous Book
Review: One of the biggest regrets of my life was not taking a day off from work when Tip was signing copies of this book. He died two weeks later. If you love a good story, a tall tale and a bit of blarney this book is for you. Short on story length but long on wisdom. You have to be a real toughie to not enjoy the tales and lessons within. Buy it and read it and see if the pols of today have learned anything.

Rating:
Summary: TIp and his big ego
Review: The other reviews for this book amaze me... it seems that the other reviewers like their authors to relate common sense principles with a common thred of self-serving arrogance.

Tip said nothing in this book that everyone doesn't already know. And his constant references to himself in 3rd person get annoying by the 10th page. Who actually refers to themself as "a great man"???

Tip does.

Rating:
Summary: Slight but Enjoyable
Review: This slim collection of one-and-two-page anecdotes barely qualifies as a book at all. Nor does it make up in profundity what it lacks in heft--the "lessons" that O'Neill gives to each of his stories seem artificial and forced, something his publishers nagged him into doing. But the stories themselves are great--arrogant politicians (often O'Neill himself) get their comeuppance, feisty constituents show their mettle, stupid election strategies win, smart ones fail. This is a great bathroom book.

Rating:
Summary: Massachusetts Political Guru Strikes Again
Review: Tip O'Neill, the legendary speaker of the House of Representatives book on the game of politics is one of the more insightful books I have read about politics and people in general. Its a shame I never have had the opportunity to meet the legend who wrote this book.

Rating:
Summary: Evolution of Family Power and Money
Review: To the uninformed, political popularity that arises from local power would seem to be due to extraordinary abilities in the economic and social power circles of geographic regions. In assessing the impact, however, of the geographic dispersion of power, what becomes evident from genealogical studies is that families grow in power and prestige from intentional, and sometimes, discriminatory and malicious exlusion where power is meant to be concentrated within the "family group," sometimes extended to friends, and even sometimes, to female family members, etc. Contrary to the popular Soprano perspective of increasing power blocs to thwart competition, it is often the usurping of power by closely knit unrelated forceful groups that have been able to break the chain of privileged, presumptive entitlement created by the social aristocracy from which pre-19th Century economic wealth has grown, and often continues to be reserved like the fine champagne it is, and has always been. The difficulty of extending the benefits of these fine wines of privilege arises in the knowledge vacuum of the ever growing pyramid of members unaware of their heritage, and their potential inclusion, thereby winnowing benefits to ever, smaller groups of the noticeably "well bred, and therefore, well educated." The antithesis of democratic equality therefore operates only as a parallel universe, a poor relative, to the long ago entrenched, forcing greater stress among all those left behind, and supposed to be included, to ever greater methods of producing influence to share in the producive resources available. This strain on democracy results in local strangleholds by political players desperate to combat the forces of the closed society that has evolved as America where geographically local rules govern success. To some purists, then, the fact that all politics is local is not successful democracy but a demonstration of a failed democracy as an idealistic form of government.