Review: Helen Thomas memoir full of laughs

"Thanks for the Memories, Mr. President"
By Helen Thomas
Scribner
Memoir/Politics
239 pages

(CNN) -- A funny thing happened on the way to the Oval Office. And Helen Thomas was there to witness it.

Of course.

Thomas has been covering the White House since John F. Kennedy moved in. For her second memoir of the four decades she's spent on "the front row at the White House," Thomas focuses on the more lighthearted moments from nine presidencies.

Not that all nine were inherently funny people. She warns in the introduction that it might be "a pretty thin book." And so it is. Still, she manages to cram a lot of laughs -- and a few moments of poignancy -- into the slim volume.

She rates Kennedy and Ronald Reagan as the masters of using wit to deflect criticism and deflate critics. She also recalls Lyndon Johnson's stemwinding stories, Gerald Ford's dry observations, Bill Clinton's comic timing, George Bush's "plain speaking," Jimmy Carter's sharp comebacks, and George W. Bush's "Middle English."

And "President Nixon," Thomas recalls, "had a sense of humor of sorts ..."

She offers examples of each President's humor, though in Nixon's case, he's more often the object of the joke than the perpetrator.

Most of the laughs generated by the elder Bush were unintentional. Thomas recalls a speech from his vice presidency, when he was recounting his record serving with Reagan. "We've had triumphs. Made some mistakes. We've had some sex -- uh -- setbacks ..."

"Thanks for the Memories, Mr. President" ranges beyond the occupants of the Oval Office. It includes gibes by press secretaries, cabinet officers, first ladies and reporters.

The annual Gridiron dinners are prominently featured, as they offer unfettered freedom to poke fun. Rosalyn Carter subbed for her husband one year. "Nothing would have kept Jimmy away except matters of the most urgent national importance," she said. "As you know, he had to go to Elk City, Oklahoma."

Thomas has spent so much time in Washington (Bill Clinton says she remembers when the Electoral College was a high school) she knows where to find the good stories. Those she didn't report personally she collected from colleagues and other "sources." The result is a bright and breezy tour through the corridors of power.

"Thanks for the Memories, Mr. President" helps put a human face on the familiar figures that have strode upon the national stage over the past forty years. To paraphrase the author, "Thank you, Ms. Thomas."