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If you've seen Stella, The State, or Wet Hot American Summer, you know that Michael Ian Black is a funny man. And there are a few moments in America, You Sexy Bitch: A Love Letter to Freedom (Da Capo, $26), the new book he's coauthored with John McCain's daughter, that are pretty funny. A description of his favorite game to play when in Salt Lake City, spot the Mormon, is funny and true. ("It's easy. You just look for anybody who looks happy.") But half of this book is written by Meghan McCain, who is not funny and, for that matter, not particularly interesting.

Bitch is an account of Black and McCain's RV road trip around the United States to discover the "real America," just in time for the 2012 elections. It's one of those pop political books that gets really mad at the bums in Congress and promotes "common sense" ideas that "everyone" can supposedly agree on. Here's Black, trying to play the median:

So, no, I'm not loyal to the Democratic Party. I'm loyal to my beliefs. Right now the Democrats come closer to embodying those beliefs than the other guys, but I don't trust them because I don't trust power.

This is bong-side philosophy at its worst, a truism that's been simplified to the point of idiocy. It's the most uncontroversial, unhelpful political statement ever. That is, until McCain emotes it up over freedom, supporting the troops, and—gosh darn it—loving the heck out of America, no matter how unpopular loving America has become these days...

(Keep reading.)