Playing with Fire

Penguin Press, November 2017. First Edition. Hardcover . Very Good/Very Good. First/first in dustjacket. Blue faux cloth paper covered spine with silver lettering & black paper covered boards with LO blind stamped front panel. Clean, sound, with tight binding. Carefully read. Excellent account the 1968 election by Lawrence O'Donnell television writer for The West Wing & Mister Sterling, televsion anchor & pundit and one time congressional aid for Daniel Patrick Moynihan. O'Donnell is one of the smartest old white guys currently operating. O'Donnell is in the tradition of Gore Vidal, Alexander Cockburn and other smart, sharp tongued, political/intellectual heroes of mine. He can currently be seen and heard as a cable news talking head on his week nightly MSNBC show The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell. He proudly calls himself a socialist in a twisted version of America were doing such a thing has become tantamount to treason. Once in the supposedly backward first half of the 20th century being a socialist was considered a perfectly normal political choice. It was about as controversial as those who call themselves indepedent today. Thankfully Bernie Sanders and other such lights in the darkness of American stupidity have helped reverse this insanity. Playing with Fire is O'Donnell 2nd book, and it is a darned good one. Recommended if you are a socialist or if you are something else.