Why Not Me? (1999)

He's good enough, he's smart enough, and gosh darn it, we like him. Former Saturday Night Live writer-actor Al Franken has carved out a sweet little second career skewering politicos on Comedy Central and Politically Incorrect, and in his 1996 best-seller Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot. Now he covers Clinton territory with his latest effort Why Not Me?, a hilariously farcical (and eerily prescient) account of a bumbling presidential candidate with a penchant for hookers and a platform based solely on obliterating ATM fees. While nowadays it's hard for fiction to top real life in terms of political entertainment, Franken offers a gleefully absurd, rambling jaunt through the ritual of American campaigning. A-