When news broke this week that former President George W. Bush plans to pen a book exploring the tough decisions of his presidency, my initial thought was: Who cares?

But then I remembered that this kind of assault on our intelligence never ends. And it is not confined to a political party or ideology, and no creed, race or religion is immune from the generic dullness of books authored by politicians.

Is it conceivable that a politician could write a candid or fascinating book? I submit the answer is hell, no. Politicians are inherently risk-averse and obsessed with message control, legacy building and revisionism.

There are many sub-genres of political tome, but a few of them stand out.

If you can excavate a copy of Al Gore's 1992 comic masterpiece, "Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit," please take a gander. Here we find a timeless illustration of an elected official giving in to the overbearing urge to tackle issues way beyond his intellectual range. Other titles of this variety include Diane DeGette's "Sex, Science, and Stem Cells" and Dan Quayle's "Standing Firm: A Vice-Presidential Memoir."

At least those titles feign seriousness, unlike another self-important sub-genre: the bogus candidate manifesto. Here the author (or ghostwriter) attempts to compile some middling positions and transform them into a heroic philosophy. This kind of arrangement can be found in Bush's first book, 1999's "A Charge To Keep," as well as in John Edwards' "Four Trials" (ambulance-chasers have hearts, too!) and Hillary Clinton's heartwarming collectivist fable, "It Takes a Village" (matriarchal enough for the entire nation).

I'm not sure whether this is treason, but I am also mildly irritated by authors who employ steely gravitas we can only marvel at. The master of this genre is John McCain. Continued...