Book Choices

Barack Obama's reading has gotten an inordinate amount of attention in recent days, both for the admiration for Philip Roth he expressed in an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg, as well as for Fareed Zakaria's new book, which the candidate was recently spotted toting. It's kind of a silly phenomenon, all this concern about important people's reading lists. The reading contest that the White House cooked up between Karl Rove and W was the trend's ludicrous apex. (Though if the president really is spending as much time reading as he claims, maybe that explains the problems of the last eight years.)

If I were a presidential candidate, it'd be really hard not to poke fun at the press corps' obsession. I'd let them see me with, say, Jenna Jameson's autobiography, and revel in the inevitable questions:

Reporter: Senator Corcoran (that's fun to write, by the way), what can you tell us about the new book?

Me: Well, I've long admired Ms. Jameson as an underrated artist. People want to pigeonhole her as being one certain type of performer, but she's breakin' the mold. Just like we're breakin' the mold. We're not going to practice politics as usual, just as Ms. Jameson isn't following the same old tired porn-star career arch.

I guess that's why I'm not a politician. Has a presidential candidate ever uttered the words "porn star" in public?