I haven't read Hillary Clinton's newly-released autobiography and as far as I can tell, neither have about 90% of the folks who are now reviewing it. Fox commentator Tony Blankley even nakedly admits he hasn't read it and then proceeds to trash the book, and he may be on to something. (At least, give the man some points for beings honest about it.) Even those who have actually turned some pages seem to have only done so to pull a few quotes they can use as evidence to shore up the opinions — pro or con — they were already going to write. If you want to see some real clumsy lying, go over to the page on Amazon where folks who've read the book (or claim so) can post reviews.
You'll see long-time Hillary-haters pretending to be unbiased observers who just happened to have gotten hold of a copy, read it and found it so boring and/or incredible that they just have to advise you to save your money.And you'll find the opposite faction: Pro-Clinton people pretending they came to the book with no opinion of Senator Clinton and her hubby and were overwhemingly convinced of their virtue. At the moment — it could change if one or two people become determined to change it — the vote is pretty much split. The average reviewer gives it two-and-a-half stars out of five, which is roughly the split that polls tell us Hillary inspires in Americans. It intrigues me that Amazon has become this barometer of political spirit in much the same way activists feel they've won something if they can bombard an online poll with thousands of faux votes and see their side win a victory. It's becoming painfully obvious to me that a lot of online polls are deliberately configured to inspire such manipulation. If I ever need to get my "hit" count up here, I'll install one and ask some hot button questions.
I don't know that having a best-selling book everywhere, let alone just on Amazon, means that the author is growing more powerful or is winning over America — a country where few read books, and most who do read books favor those that confirm what they already believe. But since there seems to be no other way to vote for or against Hillary at the moment, it's getting turned into a kind of referendum. Her book — briefly — fell from #2 to #3 on Amazon and when I visited a few of the conservative chatboards I surf, I saw cheering and the proud proclamation that the U.S. was catching on to her and that the book would be on the remainder table by next week. (Uh, couldn't it also have meant a brief surge in Harry Potter sales?) When Hillary quickly returned to #2, we got the conspiracy theories: Amazon is lying, Barbra is buying up tons, etc. The folks trying to spin this as Hillary's comeback are no better.
Sometimes, a hot dog is just a hot dog. Sometimes, book sales are just book sales. I don't think the tons of volumes that Michael Moore and Michael Savage were simultaneously selling prove that the country was moving in any direction, much less both at the same time. I don't even think it proves that any significant number of people have a favorable opinion of either Michael. If anything, it proves that those men were good at exploiting political sentiments in order to sell some books. Hillary and her publishers have obviously learned the trick.