Donald Trump says President Obama should have read his book, “The Art of the Deal,” because it would have kept him from making a bad nuclear agreement with Iran. Jeb Bush says that Trump should have read his book, “Immigration Wars.” Bobby Jindal says all the other candidates should read his book, “American Will: The Forgotten Choices That Changed Our Republic,” when it comes out in October.
And lest anyone has missed the point, in the Republican candidate debate this week, Dr. Ben Carson said he wanted as president the Secret Service code name “One Nation,” which just so happens to be the title of one of his many books.
It wasn’t always the case that would-be presidents wrote books or talked about them so much.
Today, however, campaign books are as routine as campaign photographs, which incidentally is a common theme for book jacket covers.
But is book authorship a valid credential for making someone resident of the White House?
Our study of presidential writing suggests it is not.
Good Writers Aren’t Necessarily Good Presidents
