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The Worst-Case Scenario Almanac .: Politics |  | Authors: David Borgenicht, Turk Regan
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
Buy New: $0.01
as of 9/6/2010 20:45 CDT details
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Seller: BHFO, Inc.
Rating:  3 reviews
Media: Paperback
Pages: 288
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0811863212
Dewey Decimal Number: 320
EAN: 9780811863216
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Leave it to the experts of the best-selling Worst-Case Scenario series to ferret out the most scandalous, dangerous, incompetent, and downright awful people to ever seek power. The most lavish palaces, the bloodiest coups, the stupidest declarations. . . . Plus all the lists, charts, maps, and profiles that have made the Worst-Case Scenario Almanacs such a success. Which country had more governments in the past 175 years Italy or Bolivia? What ever happened to all those people who ran for vice president of the United States of America and lost? Illustrated, step-by-step scenarios describe how to respond when confronted with misfortune or challenge, including how to give a concession speech, kiss a drooling baby, escape a sex scandal, and evade the truth.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Informative, amusing, humorous for our times June 16, 2008
A. Whitney (Silicon Valley, CA USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The Worst-Case Scenario series had brought us lots of unusual and surprising tips (How to Escape from the Trunk of a Car, How to Remove a Leach, How to Escape from a Stampede of Giraffes, etc..) but now the team tackles something that we all want to be saved from: Politics. This Almanac has lots of surprising info on politics' past (Did you know that: Trent Lott had been a cheerleader? Italy had an 83.6% voter turn-out in 2006? Or that Washington D.C. Mayor Marion Barry once said, "Outside of the killings, we have one of the lowest rates of crime in the nation."? )
The book also has those step-by-step how-to's that are synonymous with the series: How to Kiss a Drooling Baby, How to Counter a Smear Ad, How to Continue a Bankrupt Campaign, How to Pretend You Care, etc..)
It's a quick-read, funny book that will educate you and give you some pointers for when you want to run for office. I'm sure Obama or McCain could use some of those tips right about now.
Best book of the year.. maybe of the century October 2, 2008
Dan Shaffer (Leesburg, VA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Filled with useless facts and historical references this book is a must have for any history buff or someone who just wants a good laugh.
The book is composed of 6 chapters each of which has a different theme. One of the sections in the chapters is an item called 'Who's who of the worst' which goes over infamous figures in history. Most of the names are obscure (who is Sextus Pompey?) however occasionally the authors mention a recent terrible person such as Dan Quayle who I was delighted to read about. Other sections are just funny such as the page on Strange Pets of World Leaders. I never knew that President Coolidge had a hippo named Billy.
Overall this book is nonstop entertainment with fascinating historical references, covering history from the ancient Greeks to the present.
 The REAL Worst-Case Scenario: Running Out of Ideas III June 21, 2009
fredtownward (Palatine, Illinois United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
With their third edition in the almanac format, the people who invented the worldwide market for handbooks have hit rock bottom. They may continue to publish their increasingly worthless products, but I won't be buying them, and I suggest that you don't either, and I speak as one who bought every single handbook and almanac they've ever produced until now!
As has been the case since the almanac format began, this book contains a mere pittance of the detailed worst-case scenarios with expert-provided suggestions on how to deal with same that made these books worth buying in the first place: just 28 in 260 pages, the lowest number yet. Worse, these may be the most useless scenarios they've ever assembled, at least unless they are willing to re-title this book The Worst-Case Scenario Almanac: CROOKED Politics. Fully 20 of the 28 scenarios would only be useful in whole or in significant part to the crooked or dishonest politician. Two more are of no use to the intended reader whatsoever: "How to Drive a Tank" belongs in another book entirely, and "How to Escape Assassination by Ninja" is an asinine attempt at humor where once upon a time the creators would have given useful tips on how to survive REALISTIC assassination attempts.
That leaves only 6 scenarios an honest politician might glean something useful from.
The rest of the book is filled with the by-now-expected questionable filler, made more useless than it might have been by the creators' bizarre decision to include items on monarchial and dictatorial "politics" along with the democratic politics that constitutes the only area from which useful lessons might be learned in this day and age.
Thus, out of 56 comparative charts, only 12 are restricted to democratic politics; out of 53 Political Lessons, only 25 are; out of 11 Who's Who Worst of Worst, only 5 are; and finally out of 26 Political Briefs, an almost respectable in comparison 17 are.
In such a complete disaster it almost constitutes "piling on" to point out that the book is politically biased, too; suffice it to say that a book chock full of political scandals that contains THREE brief mentions of the Clintons along with almost every recent Republican scandal isn't even TRYING to fool readers into believing it to be "objective".
Finally, it is worth pointing out that of the two possible extremes of viewing politicians: pollyannish versus completely cynical, the completely cynical view expressed in this book is undoubtedly the most destructive of good government. That's because the pollyannas at least can be a force for good once their eyes are pried open on the topic of corruption in politics. Pollyannas may be late to realize what is going on, but at least they can vote intelligently once they get their heads out of their backsides. However, the complete cynic who believes contrary to the evidence that "everybody does it" actually makes things worse because the ONLY advantage an honest politician has over a crooked or dishonest politician is the sensible voters' preference for honesty. If too many voters fail to distinguish between honest and dishonest because they falsely believe they're all crooks, the result is inevitably going to be ever more dishonest politicians because there is no longer any point to being honest.
Just what we need more of today; thanks a lot.
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