Reviewing: "It's Getting Ugly Out There" by Jack Cafferty

It's Getting Ugly Out There
By Jack Cafferty
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
http://www.wiley.com/
2007
ISBN# 978-0-470-14479-4
Hardback
269 Pages



With a subtitle of "The Frauds, Bunglers, Liars, and Losers Who Are Hurting America" author Jack Cafferty is not in the mood to take prisoners. In the same style familiar to viewers of his often acerbic segments known as the "Cafferty File" on CNN'S The Situation Room, Jack Cafferty opens fire with both barrels on our government and its repeated failures during the Bush administration. Whether Katrina and New Orleans, Illegal Immigration, the burgeoning debt, the Patriot Act and other follies, or many other issues, Cafferty tells readers, often profanely, exactly and without ambiguity what he thinks. He also shares numerous comments he has received in response to his segments the last several years.

In between he weaves his own personal back story of a dysfunctional home, his own alcoholism and other issues the past sixty years of his life. On occasion, when he isn't considering his upbringing or the way things are these days, he waxes poetic regarding the spirit of the American people and how we can fix things going forward starting with the 2008 Presidential election.

The result, while interesting overall, is largely a rehash of what you see every afternoon on his program. In fact, in some areas, most notably regarding the economy and the candidates, the information is already seriously dated. Unfortunately, despite all his criticism of what led to this point in our nation's history, Jack Cafferty has no actual suggestions for the future and breaks no new ground in this book.

Kevin R. Tipple © 2008