From the Elephant's Mouth: Books by Republican Candidates

How do you evaluate a presidential candidate? When the last two presidents were candidates, some journalists focused on supposedly-revealing character traits, like Bush's folksy manners or Obama's charisma. They all misjudged what presidents the candidates would become. Other journalists, instead, read the candidates' writings; they often judged the candidates correctly. As the 2012 contestants start their engines, the time has come for taking their measure. So what have they written recently? What can we learn?

Assuming the Democrats will nominate Obama, my agenda for this thread is to read books by potential Republican nominees and report on them, with an eye on their likely goals as presidents, their likely methods, and the their view of how the world works.

At this point, four Republican candidates have made every pollster's top-five list: Sarah Palin, Mike Huckaby, Mitt Romney, and Newt Gingrich. All of them have written extensively about national public affairs. Those are the ones whose books I'll read first. Beyond them, there are further candidates who have made some pollsters' top-five list but not others'. They are Ron Paul, Chris Christie, Tim Pawlenty, Jeb Bush, and Rick Perry. Of those, all but Christie and Bush have written programmatic books; I intend to review them later.

That being settled, please excuse me as I turn to reading Sarah Palin's America by Heart first. (I started it last year, but never got around to finishing it.) See you on the other side!