"Listen Up, Mr. President," by Craig Crawford and Helen Thomas, Must Sell, Or Imus Will Suffer

Craig Crawford should have considered a career in advertising, since he's already come up with some darn good slogans for the I-Man. At RFD-TV, it was "just one more cow," which was so catchy Jim Nantz slipped it in to the play-by-play of an NFL playoff game.

Now, Crawford has gifted Imus this little gem: "Just one more Fox!"

Crawford, a perennial I-Fave, has a new book out this week called Listen Up, Mr. President, which he wrote with legendary White House reporter Helen Thomas.

"Helen is such a blast," Crawford said about the 89-year old Thomas, who began her career covering the waning days of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's administration. "She's my best friend in Washington."

The book consists of what Crawford called "platitudinal" chapter titles like "Give Us Vision," "Do The Right Thing," and "Pay Attention." But one chapter — about courage — has been on Crawford's mind lately, particularly President Harry Truman's decision to fire the very popular General Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War.

"MacArthur defied Truman's policy of not expanding the Korean War into China," said Crawford, and recalled Truman's exact quote: "I fired him because he wasn't respecting the authority of the President. I didn't fire him because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was."

Truman's quote had been totally on the record, something Crawford admired, and he described the decision to fire MacArthur as a very courageous thing to do, politically.

Unlike, say, the tap dance between President Obama and General McChrystal when it comes to Afghanistan, where McChrystal has publicly stated he wants 40,000 more troops in place. He has yet to formally ask Obama for that number.

"They don't want to get the request until they've made the decision," Crawford said about the administration. It reminded him of President Johnson during the Vietnam War. "The generals kept wanting more and more and more, and he kept giving it. But he knew in his gut it was wrong."

Imus observed that the Obama administration reminds him of the first round of American Idol auditions, in that "the town's mental patients show up dressed like pieces of fruit, thinking they have some sort of ability and we discover...they have no talent."

Crawford said Obama's nature is to listen to all parties. "It's one of the things I like about him as President," he said. "But there comes a time to stop listening and start doing."

And for Imus, that time was now: stop listening to Crawford talk about his book, and work on getting that book, Listen Up, Mr. President, sold. As added incentive, Imus told listeners, "If this book does well, it will help me in my battle with prostate cancer."

Sorry, Craig.

-Julie Kanfer