Pitchforks and Torches: The Worst of the Worst, from Beck, Bill, and Bush to Palin and Other Posturing Republicans [ハードカバー]

It goes without saying that if you consider yourself to be on the right segment of the political spectrum (as opposed to the left), there are a lot of things in this book that you may not agree with.

That said, Olbermann doesn't pull any punches with the folks on the left either. He calls out dishonesty and evil wherever he sees it. He just happens to see a bit more of it from the right than from the left.

If you aren't familiar with Olbermann and have never watched his show, "Countdown," you should probably watch a few episodes before purchasing this book. If you like the show, you'll find the book to be an enjoyable portable version. If you hate the show, there'd be absolutely no reason to purchase the book.

I found the book to be an enjoyable, eye-opening, provocative, occasionally gut-wrenching read, and I had a difficult time putting it down. Olbermann does a great job of articulating the frustration and angst felt by those of us who believe that America is turning into an giant, powerful, corrupt corporation, with its citizens turning into slaves. Olbermann's thoughts and observations regarding health care in this country are particularly insightful -- his essays regarding his father's failing health got me choked up a couple of times.

I liked the book and will be sharing it with friends and family.

I was a little disappointed that this was a collection of Worst Persons and special comments from Keith's show, but once I started reading it was interesting to see his perspective as things were happening.

It's easy to write Olbermann off (especially if you simply think of him as a liberal commentator) as someone who pilloried people on the right. And he did. But it's easy to forget, until reading though these pages, that he was also happy to flay Obama, Reid, and the blue dog Democrats when it was deserved.

A large chunk of the book was culled from the seemingly eternal debate over the health care bill. Olbermann viewed it not just from a liberal perspective but also through the eyes of someone whose mother had died two years earlier, had undergone an emergency surgery, and had a father who suffered a long decline before dying. It made the health care debate more than politics, it was an intimate issue for him. I'm sure this helped fire his outrage over such fake arguments as death panels, planted protesters at town hall meetings, and weak-kneed pawns of the health care industry posing as Democrats.

Read after the shooting of Rep. Giffords, there's also a chilling prescience in his predictions that the growing rhetoric of violence during that period would end in someone would be injured or killed as a result. Based on that alone, it must have taken great self-control not to spend his last few weeks on the air simply saying "I told you so" over and over again.

I loved watching Countdown, and the book reminded me of the best and the worst of the program and Olbermann's on-air style. He was funny, frank, and happy to tell off morons on either side. He had a love for language, facts, and human compassion and little patience with public figures who failed at any of those.

At the worst is the strained formality of Olbermann's prose style, with his "sirs" and "madams" -- often proffered to those whom he never held with much esteem. I can also hear his voice as I read, with his highly emotional delivery. Olbermann thought and wrote as well as any broadcast journalist ever, including Edward R. Murrow. What Olbermann never managed was the icy calm of Murrow. I think that always stacked the deck against him, allowing the other side to ignore or dismiss him as much as he irritated them.

When Keith left MSNBC I ordered a show coffee mug as a way of remembering the hours I watched his program so grateful that I wasn't the only one who thought the country was going crazy. I bought the book while he was still on the air and read it with real fondness and appreciation for what he brought to his programs.

When I heard Keith Olbermann was coming out with a new book, I was looking forward to it. But this is just another collection of "Special Comments," which most of us have already heard, plus a few transcripts of other features. I understand that the words are still relevant and the sentiments still valid. I also appreciate that people who are not regular viewers will find a lot of value here. However, another compilation--which almost amounts to just transcripts from his show--was not what I was hoping to find.

Please, Keith. Write a real book. You're an intelligent man with a lot to say, and we'd like to read something from you that we haven't already heard.