I assign political science titles for review in LJ. For the past many months, this classification has overflowed with books relating to the war in Iraq and the “War on Terror,” but another kind of book is coming in quite often now: the presidential candidate’s biography or autobiography. 

Bill Richardson was ahead of the game. He only just declared that he is exploring a 2008 run, but he put his autobiography, Between Worlds: The Making of an American Life, out in 11/05. I hope it doesn’t set the standard for all of these books. Our reviewer called  it “revealing — to a fault,” e.g., Richardson writes of loading up his Alfa Romeo to move to New Mexico in 1978. This tugged at how many readers’ heartstrings as they remembered their own trials with getting luggage into their Italian sports car?

John Edwards took a different approach in 11/06 and put his name, as editor, behind Home: The Blueprints of Our Lives, celebrating the value that each of us places upon the homes in which we grew up. The nostalgia (literally) was enough to give me neuralgia, but many have understandably, if predictably, admired the collection of memories and photographs from a spectrum of famous and ordinary individuals. Memories of souped-up tranportation were of living room Lionel train sets rather than Alfa Romeos.

To balance his coffee-table entry with wonkier stuff, Edwards is one of three editors of a volume due out in May from the New Press, Ending Poverty in America: How To Restore the American Dream. Will he gain readers? Will they turn into voters? If so, will they vote for him?

Is Nader planning another run? His most recent book publishes in a couple of weeks: The Seventeen Traditions, from HarperCollins. This is billed as Nader’s most personal book because he professes the importance of parents in raising children “of virtue and talent” (he quotes Jefferson on that). Is he trying to win some “family values” types who need to replace their worn-out volumes of Bill Bennett? Should libraries adjust their collections accordingly?

John McCain took a cue from Bill Bennett with his Character is Destiny: Inspiring Stories Every Young Person Should Know and Every Adult Should Remember, written with Mark Salter. Later this year, the two will  be bringing out Hard Call: Great Decisions and the Extraordinary People Who Made Them, which may not seek to include the younger readership of the previous title because he too is now honing in on votership. 

As for McLain, there have already been a few biographies of Hillary Clinton. Most of the McLain studies are sympathetic to him, while perhaps one of the few balanced studies of Clinton is  Gil Troy’s Hillary Rodham Clinton: Polarizing First Lady, worth keeping in mind as the campaigns heat up.

Barack Obama published his second autobiography The Audacity of Hope, last October, following his Dreams from My Father. Now Black Dog & Leventhal is promoting the “first biographical portrait ever” of Obama, by People magazine’s Steve Dougherty. They distinguish it from Obama’s own books by titling it Hopes and Dreams. It’s due in about a month.

Last year at ALA in Chicago, both Mayor Daley and Senator Obama spoke to the convention. It was a fascinating juxtaposition: Mayor Daley was fire and brimstone, punching his fist into his hand, speaking with astonishing passion and flare. Obama was the relaxed and conversational communicator. There seemed no question that Mayor Daley’s speech was written specifically for America’s librarians, and that made his speech have a certain magic to us. He boasted, deservedly, of all the work he has done on behalf of Chicago’s public libraries, and he spoke of the values of reading in highly personal and meaningful ways. Senator Obama’s speech was the generic one that ALA members often hear from the visiting politician, all about how he loved libraries as a kid, how much it mattered to go there. As a librarian, maybe I was disappointed, but as a voter, my own hopes and dreams are newly alive.