Is it just me, or is Ed Klein's The Amateur on everyone's summer pre-convention reading list? First, media mogul Rupert Murdoch said via Twitter that "every voter should read" Klein's book. Then, in an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News broadcast Monday night, former Vice President Dick Cheney revealed he was a fan of The Amateur as well.
Discussing his surprise at just how far left the Obama Administration has swung, and how poorly it has managed the nation???s affairs, Cheney said, ???One of the things that???s been most enlightening for me is to read this new book that???s out, that deals with this whole question of competence, written by Ed Klein, who used to be with the New York Times. It???s called The Amateur. It goes into great detail in a whole number of different areas in terms of his philosophy, and why he believes what he did, and how he got there, and how he???s managed ??? or failed to manage ??? in the White House.???
???Here???s a man who doesn???t believe in a lot of those things that I think most Americans do believe in, in terms of a strong international role for the United States of America,??? Cheney added.
In the same interview, Cheney offered a clarification of his controversial opinion that 2008 vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin was a ???mistake??? on the part of the McCain campaign. Many conservatives, including Cheney???s daughter Liz, strongly objected to this characterization.
In the Hannity interview, Dick Cheney said he was critical of the process by which Palin was selected, more than the nominee herself: ???It wasn???t aimed so much at governor Palin as it was against the basic process that McCain used. My point basically dealt with the process in terms of that basic requirement: Is this person prepared to step in to be President of the United States when they???re picked? And it was my judgment - I was asked if I thought the McCain process in ???08 had been well done or was it a mistake, and I said I thought it was a mistake.???
The Amateur has now been on the New York Times bestseller list for 11 weeks, including 6 weeks at Number One. It has sold over 300,000 copies in hardcover and electronic formats, with over 400,000 copies in print. The Amateur is published by Regnery, sister company to HUMAN EVENTS.
