Need Presidency Bidder Insight? See Their Books

One way to gain insight into the 2016 presidential hopefuls is to read their own words. A surprising number of Democrat and Republican primary candidates are authors, some even with best sellers. Granted there is often an excess of one-sided opinion and manipulated fact, but politicians' books still reveal their core values, goals and leadership style. So let's start with the most prolific writer: Democrat front-runner Hillary Clinton. Besides scholarly articles and innumerable columns, she is the author of five books, starting with It Takes a Village in 1996 to Hard Choices in 2014 (although I'd discount political revelations from her book of kids' letters to the First Pets). The recently published Hard Choices is a memoir of her years as Secretary of State, but most reviewers agree that while it is "serious, sober and substantive" (NY Times) on policy issues, the book disappoints by failing to reveal much about Hillary herself. Sales have been disappointing as well. The crowded GOP field has been more successful with publishing. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson scored the New York Times best seller list in 2014 with One Nation: What We Can All Do to Save America's Future, touting individual responsibility and bashing Obamacare. Marco Rubio also had a best seller with his memoir An American Son, but it was followed this year by the low-sales American Dreams: Restoring Economic Opportunity for Everyone. As an example of how presidential ambition impacts an author's tone, consider Rand Paul's 2012 book Government Bullies: How Everyday Americans Are Being Harassed, Abused, and Imprisoned by the Feds versus this year's Taking a Stand: Moving Beyond Partisan Politics to Unite America. In 2015, Texas Tea Party icon Ted Cruz joined the conservative fray with A Time for Truth: Reigniting the Promise of America, expressing views that "have made him a political lightning rod and the most googled man in Washington," per Amazon's blurb. And presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee this year debuted God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy, which posits a struggle between the "Bubbaville" American heartland and the "Bubbleville" coastal big cities, including D.C. Regardless of sales, the anti-Washington stance of Paul, Huckabee and Cruz doesn't mean a party win as Texas Republican Rick Perry can attest; he published Fed Up!: Our Fight to Save America from Washington in 2010 before his unsuccessful try for GOP nomination. What about Jeb Bush? With embarrassingly puny readership, Jeb Bush penned Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution back in 2013, espousing a demand-driven system. There are more presidential hopefuls (Bernie Sanders, Bobby Jindal, Elizabeth Warren, etc.) who've written books, but I've run out of space! For more GOP authors, see http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/2016-book-race-gop/2015/01/30/id/621851/