Why Not Me is Al Franken’s 1999 future fiction satire of his run to the White House in the election of 2000. This was years before his actual journey into the realm of public service.
This book may be dated, but not because it was written before the turn of the century or in a different millennium. This book is dated because the line on what works as satire is drawn based around the current events that satire is set against. Why Not Me has moments of clarity that shock, but those are few and far between.
Mostly, it’s a poor guesstimation of what happens when the wholly unqualified and self-serving seek the highest office in the United States. What was probably a problem in terms of campaign finance or tactics seems downright banal when compared to the rhetoric, grandstanding, and hyperbole that has been given prominence in the presidential elections from 2016 onward.
If only some things stayed as satire.
Still, as a work of fiction, this still has its moments of hilariousness. This is Franken writing about a satirized fictionalized version of himself that is only a few years removed from his Saturday Night Live days.
But perhaps what’s sad is that the book opens with fictional Franken describing why he ran for office in the first place, and it almost feels like a called shot. “The reason I’m running is very simple: to restore America’s lost faith in its leaders. Of course, the high-paid media pundits may say this claim is grandiose, that I’m not qualified, that I’m deluded or even seriously mentally ill. But I think the American people know better.”
In this book it turns out that, yes, he is unqualified and he is mentally ill, but it takes less than a year to unravel before he has to resign. Perhaps knowing better was the ultimate optimistic thing he added to this satire. In truth, we’re now so divided that one man’s crazy is another’s common sense. One man’s narcissism is another man’s hope. These things are not equal, and they aren’t even irredeemable, but we have become a nation that really couldn’t cope with much of the fiction in Franken’s fictionalized universe because half of us would know it’s fake, and the other half would claim it real.
Part of this is because of the, now more relevant, truth of Franken’s statement in the book that, “As a regular voter for most of my adult life, I have grown to share the average American’s disgust with ‘politics as usual.” Except that instead of getting involved, those average Americans have doubled down on fear and anger, because hope is for other people, or worse, it’s for other people to lose.
Reading this in 2025 takes some of the sting out of Franken’s biting wit, but that’s not his fault. Who among us could have imagined a world where reality TV stars can run for office and win, all while by doing far worse than Franken’s fictionalized philandering politician?
Truth be told, the reason the real Al Franken was led down the path of resignation from the Senate in real life seems remarkably tame by comparison to his fictionalized character’s actions as well as those of our remaining elected officials.
Still, this book is a salvation in fiction that there is a “too far.” There is a “too much.” There is a point when resignation is the only way. That’s perhaps a reminder of our own collective naivete, but perhaps it’s just how far we’ve fallen. Today’s elected officials will double-down on the lie before even bothering to consider the truth. As crazy as this may seem, Why Not Me serves as a beacon for the lines we wished had never been crossed.
If not, it’s still pretty entertaining, and definitely more so than what passes for news on cable television these days. As an added bonus, fans of political fact can enjoy a few chapters from a fictional book entitled “The Void: The First One Hundred Days of The Franken Presidency by Bob Woodward” that’s pretty funny in the comedy of style imitation.
Read the Secret File of technical information and quotes from “Why Not Me.”