Hillel Italie's AP piece uses Barack Obama's new bestseller THE AUDACITY OF HOPE as a jumping off point about political memoirs & biographies in general - and how most of them become obsolete as soon as the two-week window is over (if that.) "It's all about the authenticity of the voice," says Jonathan Karp of Warner Twelve, a Warner Books imprint that will release a book next spring by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), another politician who has fared well in publishing. "If readers believe that the politician is giving it to them straight and has something of legitimate value to say, they buy the book. If they think it's a self-propagandizing, self-promotional book, it's straight to the remainder bins."

Which explains why Jimmy Carter has continued to write books that reach a wide audience, even though none matches the level of success of say, JFK or Bill Clinton. A book provides a forum, an excuse for getting out there and talking about yourself," says David Rosenthal, executive vice president and publisher at Simon & Schuster, which has published several books by former President Carter. "It also implies a degree of substance on the part of the author.