In the battle of the presidential memoirs, George W. Bush is gaining some significant ground on his predecessor, selling almost as many copies of Decision Points in two months as President Bill Clinton sold of his in two years. Why would Americans be so eagerly purchasing the product? One suggestion on MSNBC is that, maybe, people just hate Bush more. Speaking to Norah O’Donnell, who introduced the segment in awe of the book sales given approval ratings, Salon writer Alex Pareene brought a grab-bag of reasons that Bush’s book may be selling like hotcakes, few of which were flattering:
It may be the fact that he was hated by so many people actually helped fuel his book sales because people wanted to hear him actually justify himself and explain some of his decisions that he made. And, you know, there are, I mean, you can imagine that some people bought it as a gag or some people got it, received it as a gift and didn’t really want it.
NORAH O’DONNELL: And one had the highest ever approval rating for a President, leaving the White House, 66 percent. The other, one of the lowest at 22 percent. So, you would imagine or you might imagine that the popular Bill Clinton’s presidential memoir would far outsell the one written by the very unpopular, unpopular George W. Bush. Well, guess what? In the two months, in just two months President Bush’s “Decision Points” memoir has sold almost as many copies as President Clinton’s “My Life” sold in two years. Alex Pareene is political writer for Salon, and he’s going to tell us why. Alex, so why is that? Why has George W. Bush’s memoir “Decision Points” sold so well?
ALEX PAREENE, SALON: Well, obviously we can’t say for sure because we don’t know why those two million people have bought it. But, there are, I’ve speculated a couple reasons. It may be the fact that he was hated by so many people actually helped fuel his book sales because people wanted to hear him actually justify himself and explain some of his decisions that he made. And, you know, there are, I mean, you can imagine that some people bought it as a gag or some people got it, received it as a gift and didn’t really want it. And also the fact is like there are Kindle copies now, there are ebooks that are much more popular and not that’s a much cheaper way to buy a book. But my favorite speculative reason is that it’s just half as long as Bill Clinton’s book. Bill Clinton’s book is like 1,000 pages long and George W Bush got his presidency done in 500 pages and then he’s out.
O’DONNELL: Alex, I, that is brilliant. I think that’s actually probably one of the main, that’s probably one of the main reasons. It’s only half as long. That’s fantastic. But what about sort of the ereader phenomenon? I mean, actually, that makes it much easier to purchase a book rather than, than, you know, having to go to a book store.
PAREENE: Oh, yeah, it’s much easier now. You can just go on Amazon and for like ten bucks, you know, you can get it right on your Kindle right away or on your iPad or what have you. And yeah, having to actually go out to the Barnes & Noble to pick up Bill Clinton’s book was probably a lot of work a couple years ago.
O’DONNELL: Alright, Alex Pareene, it’s a fun read. Thanks so much, we appreciate it.
PAREENE: Alright, thanks for having me.
So, Bush’s book is popular because:
1.He’s hated
2.People bought it as a gag
3.People received it as a gift they didn’t want
4.Books are cheaper now
5.It’s shorter than Clinton’s
It takes an amazing amount of rationalizations to be a liberal these days, doesn’t it?
Consider that “My Life” was first published in June 2004. Do O’Donnell and Pareene think Amazon wasn’t around then?
And what about now?
Those interested could buy Clinton’s book at Amazon for as little as $2.45 in hardcover and $1.60 in paperback.
By contrast, the cheapest “Decision Points” is available for is $6.51.
I guess it never dawned on either of these geniuses to compare current prices before floating absurd explanations.
That must be too much like journalism for these dolts.
(Source: NewsBusters / Media ITE)
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6 Responses
Maybe it’s because fewer of Clinton’s supporters know how to read?
They’re probably waiting for the movie…
It’s for the same reason that Rush and Hannity and O’Reilly have larger audiences than Olbermann and Maddow and O’Donnell. Right-wing audiences tend to feel under attack by the culture at large and therefore embrace media that speaks to them.
Bush was way less popular than Clinton ever was — no one’s ever denied that. But you don’t need to be supported by 66% of the population to sell books. 22% is plenty if they go out and buy whatever you throw on the page.
I’m surprised this didn’t occur to the people doing that interview.
Good for you, President Bush! You’re outselling the other guy even without stooping to his salacious extramarital antics that are no doubt hyping his sales.
Who says nice guys finish last?
Oh, and speaking of monumental presidential scandals…where’s the birth certificate?
what a corrupt media!
I cant forget the day when Bill Clinton’s ‘my life’ book was published, the every possible media stream was only busy how ppl waited from early morning in the line to buy it, and bla bla bla.
now that they see the G Bush’s book sold even triple as much and in a shorter time, they have no problem to sell all kinds of non-sense that its because he was hated bla bla….. face the fact, now everybody can see that the anti-Bush poles were false!
(if Hitler ym’sh would publish a book, would you also buy it because you hate him….?)
2)now you see in the poles that Obama ids even lower than Gorge Bush was, so whats the point here?…
sorry MessNBC its because they miss him compared to your savior Hussein Obama! get over it.
Please correct the title. It should say: “Bush Sells More Books THAN Clinton Because He Is So Hated”