SELLING LIKE SUBSIDIZED HOTCAKES

An aside in Time's gushy cover story about Sarah Palin:

If ever there has been a time to gamble on a flimsy résumé, ever a time for the ultimate outsider, this might be it. "We have so little trust in the character of the people we elected that most of us wouldn't invite them into our homes for dinner, let alone leave our children alone in their care," writes talk-show host Glenn Beck in his book Glenn Beck's Common Sense, a pox-on-all-their-houses fusillade at Washington. Dashed off in a fever of disillusionment with those in power, Beck's book is selling like vampire lit, with more than 1 million copies in print.

I won't deny that Beck gets nice TV ratings, but I just want to point out that his listing at #1 on the New York Times paperback nonfiction list is accompanied by a dagger, which "indicates that some bookstores report receiving bulk orders."

Now, regular readers know I don't believe every right-wing book is bulk-bought until it's a bestseller. But Beck's is definitely being bulk-bought. (So, by the way, is the latest from Dick Morris, which is #1 on the hardcover nonfiction list.)

As for the vampire lit, it doesn't appear that, say, Charlaine Harris needs a right-wing sugar daddy to boost sales.