The MagazineMadame PresidentShe’s a centrist Republican in danger of defeat.Jan 3, 2011, Vol. 16, No. 16
• By DEBRA J. SAUNDERS
 Eighteen Acres  A Novel by Nicolle Wallace Atria, 336 pp., $25
When you cross-pollinate chick lit with politics, there is always the risk that the author (or reputed author) will transport her narcissism to places where it ought not be seen. Take the two novels cowritten by—you still have to call her senator—Barbara Boxer. In A Time to Run, Boxer introduces innocent readers to her alter ego, California Democrat Ellen Fischer, a perky Bay Area children’s advocate who doesn’t want to run for the Senate after her congressman-husband dies in a car accident, but reluctantly becomes a candidate after a party bigfoot presses her to run, saying, “You’re respected and loved. Most important of all, when it comes to mudslinging, you’re bulletproof.” Oh yeah. And Boxer’s villain—a conservative writer for the, ahem, San Francisco Chronicle—warns her, “Politics is not for the likes of you. It’s dirty.” In the next book, Fischer’s new husband calls her a “cunning little vixen.” The Senate Democratic leader tells Fischer that she has “personally raised the integrity bar. People are asking themselves, if they can’t trust you, then who can they trust?” The novel ends with Fischer’s name being floated for the vice presidency. I didn’t want to know that Boxer actually thinks such things, or that she doesn’t have anyone on her staff who could tell her the books were a bad idea. To read more, you must be a Weekly Standard Subscriber We're Sorry,
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