Back in October of 2008, we learned that Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson and Mark Halperin and John Heilemann and Michael Takiff were all working on campaign books. Once Obama beat that sad old man, Ryan Lizza shelved his 2008 campaign book for a "first year of Obama's administration" book. Also working on their own books were Richard Wolffe and Evan Thomas and Newsweek.

And then, finally, we learned that New Yorker editor David Remnick was writing his own book about Barack Obama. And that book, The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama, is out in April.

And then, in May, comes Jonathan Alter's book. Bob Woodward's Obama book will be out later this year (ugh). Jodi Kantor's book on the Obama marriage is still in the pipeline (double ugh!). Richard Wolffe has a second one in the works.

And David Maraniss, who wrote a very famous Clinton book, is now writing his Obama book.

Not to mention Eric Boehlert's book about bloggers! Or Plouffe's book or Gwen Ifill's book or Sabato's book or the cottage industry of "Barack Obama hates America and will kill us" books by Michael Ledeen and Marc Thiessen and Stephen Moore and Pamela Geller and John Bolton and Timothy Carney!

Now. Remnick's book might be very good. Lizza's book will probably be interesting. Woodward's book will be absolutely awful and will fuel a good two week's worth of utterly terrible navel-gazing beltway coverage of "the time Rahm Emanuel was mean to someone in a meeting" and "Barack Obama called one of his political opponents a name" and that sort of bullshit that always surrounds the unveiling of these monstrosities of self-serving interviews and wholly imagined internal monologues.

The rest of these? We do not need these books. Stop it. Everyone. Wait until the Obama administration is over, and then write your history of it. In the meantime, why don't you blog about the things that are happening? Or if you are reporting something, why not publish what you have reported on a website or in a newspaper or magazine? Does it really need to be in a hardcover book, that you have to go on the morning TV shows to promote? Such a waste of everyone's time. (Especially you, Wolffe: you have a problem.)

It is a pretty good job, in this economy, with a six-figure salary and benefits and all that, but it is also something of a step down for Wolfson, who is accustomed to falling up. He "will assume the newly created position of counselor to the mayor, focusing on communications and policy." And he will quit the Glover Park Group and stop working for other clients. Which means he is giving up a lot of money to be Mike's pet Clinton flack! Why? Well: "former aides to the mayor have profited handsomely from work at his company." Also, Wolfson is disillusioned with campaign work. Maybe because he is fucking terrible at campaign work. Like, campaign reporters referred to him, on the record, as an unpleasant flack whom they did not like.

Julia Reed called Wolfson "the most charmless human being on the planet." The Economist called Wolfson "one of the least helpful spokesmen this newspaper has ever encountered." We made a lot of fun of his terrible taste in indie music.

So good luck selling Mayor Mike's policies, Howard! Always remember: trans-fats and salt only won caucus states and those don't count!