I recently finished Laura Ingraham’s latest book Power To The People and present a review of it.

Laura Ingraham is a nationally syndicated conservative talk-radio host. In Salt Lake City, she is heard on 1430 AM (KLO) from 7-10 a.m. She’s probably a second or third tier conservative host as most people don’t know who she is — they know Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and even Glenn Beck, but may have never heard of Laura Ingraham before. It wouldn’t surprise me if people thought she was “Dr. Laura” but, believe me, she and Laura Schlessinger are completely different. For one thing, Ingraham is, like, really educated and not just some physiology grad.

Some people probably confuse Laura Ingraham with Ann Coulter. There are some similarities in their “acts,” but I find Coulter to be much more vitriolic in her attacks of liberal democrats where Laura Ingraham is just entertaining.

Laura’s radio program features lots of soundbites and clips from TV news programs with witty analysis by Laura and her studio cohorts. She is also frequently joined by this or that politician or pundit to talk about the issues of the day.

One of Laura’s program’s trademarks is the opening montage of soundbites that accompany the theme music. Unlike Limbaugh’s opener (classic) or Hannity’s (*rolls eyes*), Laura’s gets changed quite frequently as she mixes it up weekly or daily with funny, idiotic, or inspiring clips of people. These montages always end with a shrill “Power to the peeeeeeople!” at the end. The screamer is a leftist human rights activist named Efia Nwangaza and the clip sounds like she’s being dragged away by security as she’s screaming.

Now you know where the title of the book comes from.

The book was an easy read, maybe too easy for me. Power To The People can be summarized as follows: Conservative talk-radio listeners should be aware of the following problems with our society. As talk-radio listeners, you have the power, collectively, to make a difference and influence action on these problems.

I fear Glenn Beck’s book coming out in November may be a similar set of recipes. We’ll see.

Laura begins by talking about the attack on the family. This was one of the more interesting chapters in the book. Laura — not married and not a parent — talks about how mainstream society looks down on large families and families in general. She discusses the value of the traditional (and natural) family model and how it must be defended. She touches on other topics that resurface later in the book, like sexualization of children and government usurping the authority of parents.

Next, illegal immigration. Who saw that coming? This section was just another dose of common sense solutions all of the talk radio world is screaming about while Washington collectively holds its fingers in its ears and says, “La la la la la.”

After that: national security. Laura talks about terror, terrorist states, and China.

Chapter four is about the courts and I thought it was the standout chapter in the book. Laura has a lot more perspective when it comes to judicial issues because she spent time working as a clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas in the U.S. Supreme Court. In this chapter she uses the nomination of Harriet Miers to argue who should and should not be a judge. I learned a lot more about the judiciary and its modern issues and controversies than I expected to.

The next chapter covers smaller government, or putting the power closer to the people. Another typical dose of conservative common sense.

Then: Porn. Laura explores just how explicit news, popular culture, and society has become and what we can do to squelch it. It’s not clear what we can do about it, to really make a difference, but Laura has several ideas.

Other chapters include topics such as schools and science. It was a little embarrassing to see Laura mention Utah twice in her book as a state that’s got it right by passing a school choice voucher law. Maybe she didn’t know about the legal appeals and the referendum when she wrote about it.

Finally, Laura spends a chapter talking about her fight with breast cancer. This was a stark deviation from the rest of her book, but it definitely humanizes the author a great deal. I found that chapter quite moving.

So, all in all, it’s an okay book. I’ll give it a 6/10 for what it is, basically a political propoganda book. It’s good reading if you’re a fan of Laura Ingraham. If you’re not (and I’m kind of in between), it may or may not be your cup of tea.