Calvin Trillin: Turning Politics Into Poems

Calvin Trillin returns to Forum to review the 2012 presidential election… in rhyme. He’ll discuss the turning point of the first debate: It got so thick, so lacking in one-liners/Some people fell asleep in their recliners. And the Republican’s lament of changing demographics: Yes, too many voters of darker complexion/Can cause the wrong person to win an election. Trillin’s new book tracing the 2012 presidential campaign in verse is called Dogfight, because: People were saying, “We wonder which dude’ll/Emerge as the pit bull, and which as the poodle.”

• More: New York Times review of Calvin Trillin’s “Dogfight: The 2012 Presidential Campaign in Verse”