Jeff Greenfield: Don't Put Too Much Stock In Last Night's Results (Except To Note The Power of the I-Man)

Having received Jeff Greenfield's list of his five favorite books for this website (which you'll find here soon), Imus picked his guest's brain about some of the choices, particularly What It Takes, by Richard Ben Cramer.

"There is no better book about American presidential politics," said Greenfield, a senior political correspondent for CBS News. "He makes you realize these people are flesh and blood human beings."

Unlike Greenfield, Imus tends to populate his own list of favorite books with titles he's never actually read, written by authors whose names he can't even pronounce. "I do this because I think everybody else does," he confessed.

In an incestuous I-Fave moment, Michael Graham, who phoned in just one hour earlier, had told Imus one of his five favorite books was a novel called The People's Choice, by Jeff Greenfield. In the book, a president-elect is killed being thrown from a horse, and the electors revolt because they don't like the vice-president.

"When the book was first optioned to be a movie, Hollywood said to me, 'This is too impossible,'" said Greenfield. "After the 2000 election, they said, 'You didn't write it weird enough.'"

Last night's election results — Republican gubernatorial victories in New Jersey and Virginia — should not be judged in terms of Obama, Greenfield cautioned. Doing so, he said, is not even like comparing apples and oranges. "It's apples and bowling balls."

The people for whom this spells trouble are Democratic House members who represent moderate, conservative districts that did not vote for Obama last year.

"Whatever the overreaction to last night, it's not going to encourage centrist Democrats to cast a tough vote," he said, speaking about upcoming health care and climate change initiatives.

This country, he added, is still profoundly worried about the economy. "Anxious voters tend not to be enthusiastic about the people in power," Greenfield said. "And the Democrats are in power."

Why, then, would Obama butt in to a race like the one in New Jersey, where the Democrat Incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine is about as big a lowlife as there is?

"Presidents are also the head of their party, by definition," Greenfield explained. "If you sit that out, what does that tell Democrats down the line?"

Time was up, but Greenfield had a request for Imus: tickets for tonight's Yankees World Series Game.

"I'll call you," said Imus, who probably won't.

-Julie Kanfer