The Almanac of American Politics, 2008

An hour with TAAP is more informative than a year of watching CNN. If you want the truth about the people who make decisions in your behalf, read The Almanac of American Politics. The book is a fair, comprehensive account of politicians without the manipulation of the networks and their biased reporters. Barone and Cohen take the responsibility of informing their readers of what goes on in Washington; they have no interest in selling cars and beer; but more importantly, they have no interest in who gets elected. If you want to find out the truth, read TAAP, if you want others to do your thinking for you, watch network TV.

The most complete collection of information available on American politics. The level of detail is unmatched. The Sunday morning pundits would be lost without it.

In this huge politcal year the Almanac of American Politics belongs on the bookshelves of anyone that has at least a passing interest in politics.
Mr. Barone can be a little too conservative for my tastes, but this years edition seems to be a little more balanced. Perhaps he's been humbled by recent events and decisions by the Current Occupant of the White House.

Mr. Barone and his collaborators continue to produce the benchmark political work of our time, and we get it updated every two years. What a treat to be able to go to this piece of work and get the unadorned skinny about an individual and the region that he represents.

Here it is again - the political junkie's biennial facts fix. Since the 1970s, all the demographic information, statistics, maps and historical background you could expect in a single volume have been available in this one. That hasn't changed with the latest model, and there's still no rival when it comes to having all the facts in one place.

What has changed? As longtime readers know, Michael Barone's conservative bias has been palpable in a number of past volumes (probably peaking along with Republican dominance of Congress in the mid-90s). It has decreased in recent issues, but it's hard for us liberal readers to avoid seeking - and usually finding - examples of Republican rhetoric thinly disguised as fact. I'm pleased to report that this edition is better than most other recent ones in that regard. One can't help but suspect that the 2006 elections made Barone want to chortle about the bleak 2008 prospects for all the new Democratic members - but for the most part, the analysis of past and future elections is straightforward and facts-based, for Democratic and Republican members alike.

Certainly, there are still points where you can at least see the bias wanting to come out. For example, the entry for Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) manages to tell the truth about why Casey's father was not allowed to address the 1992 Democratic National Convention - sort of. You can tell Barone wants to repeat the standard Republican lie about it being entirely due to the abortion issue, but instead he argues only that the decision was "certainly related to his stance on abortion but also brought on by his skepticism about Bill Clinton." Close enough, but then, the incident is mentioned again in discussing Sen. Chuck Schumer's DSCC chairmanship in terms that probably do cross the line into rhetoric-land. The more blatantly snide comments (chiding liberal voters for not supporting right-wing black or female candidates, for example) are, however, pleasantly absent this time around.

The analysis is sometimes a bit dry as a result of the relative evenhandedness, but I don't suppose that's really something we should complain about. Political junkies on the left and right alike will probably enjoy flipping through this copy.