Brown included in "Justin Biebers of Politics" - along with Rand Paul and Christine O'Donnell

[karynnj]

They are being called out for writing autobiographies (Paul and O'Donnell have contracts) before they really accomplished anything. The article speaks of how some politicians write books on interests of others when young, but wait until after their career to write books on themselves. (They mention Obama, but his first book was written before he was a politician and was a best seller.)

Of interest is that Brown's book has had disappointing sales:

Brown’s book had sold a disappointing 15,534 copies as of last week, according to Nielsen Bookscan, which tracks bookstore sales, despite a wave of publicity over his revelation of childhood abuse. Paul’s has sold just 3, 766 books so far by that measure. And despite his frequent presence on cable TV, Harold Ford wasn’t able to convert his high-profile Senate loss into an appealing book – he sold just 8,841 copies, according to Bookscan data provided by an industry source.

But those figures don’t include the bulk purchases – often by candidates’ own committees – which can boost sales figures and make the books appealing to publishers despite the lack of public interest.
<snip>
For Brown, the message is the biography: the sort of heart-rending details the Massachusetts senator disclosed will go farther toward connecting him to his constituents in his liberal home state than anything he might do in the policymaking arena. In the case of Paul, the hardcover gives him a way to highlight his brand of libertarianism and grow his profile beyond Kentucky.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/52196_Page3.html#ixzz1I5ZdpKTL

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/52196.html#ixzz1I5WLicJH

This is likely why it hit number 4 on the non fiction chart the first week then disappeared. Given the massive amount of publicity, this is pathetic.

[beachmom]

1. Interesting story. I'm not a fan, but frankly, Justin Bieber probably

has a better argument to put out a book than these others. He does actually have musical talent and became famous from first putting out You Tube videos. The others aren't as skilled in their professions, actually.

I think the pols mentioned in that article are more akin to Rebecca Black and the "Friday" phenomenon. Lefsetz (a music industry blogger) had an insightful post about fame and I think going with the metaphor of the Politico article is relevant to our discussion here:

http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2011/03/25/rebecca-black-lessons/

Don’t equate fame with being rich or longevity. Fame is oftentimes brief and oftentimes the famous make almost no cash. I.e. reality TV. But there’s an endless parade of wannabes willing to prostitute themselves for a bit of fame. Is it the human condition or a reflection of America, where the poor can no longer be rich and fame is a substitute?

This one really nails it on how rocketing to the top and being famous may backfire in the end:

If you’re twentysomething and have been slugging it out for years trying to make it don’t complain about Rebecca Black. She lives in a different world. To make it and last in music takes longer than it has since the seventies. The MTV era made stars overnight, which faded almost instantly. Now you gain traction slowly, only your fans know you, they spread the word online and you pray that you never gain a Rebecca Black moment, because that means you’ll be ridiculed and be toast.

I know it doesn't feel like it now, but I predict that as the GOP primary comes to the moment of nominating someone, the more serious candidates will end up winning. The joke candidates are all the talk now, but that is just for fame and notoriety. Sarah Palin is basically Rebecca Black -- the only reason why she got as far as she did was because McCain had such bad judgment.

Still, I think it is the trashy reality TV culture that seems to be fueling the GOP right now and leading to members of Congress being elected who have no business being there. When you get to the Presidential level, however, people although dumb aren't THAT dumb.

[MBS]

2. perfect. n/t