To while away the days until the publication of Sarah Palin's memoirs on November 17th, Rudolph Delson is reviewing the American vice presidential literary canon.

The paramount question of Standing Firm: A Vice-Presidential Memoir is whether or not Dan Quayle has a sense of humor. On the one hand, Quayle says this: "I've got a pretty good sense of humor."

On the other hand, it is obvious that he does not.

At one point in the book, Quayle describes how he would prepare jokes ahead of time for his weekly lunches with the President. George H. W. Bush "liked good jokes," Quayle reports, but: I'm one of those [...]