Recently a reader sent me an email regarding one of the images in my books. I was admonished not to let my personal politics into my books as it may deter future customers. I wholly agree!

As a writer, I enjoy jabbing politicians in my books. Some of the barbs are very subtle, some are overt.

Oh, and as complete disclosure, I am an elected official, serving on my town’s City Council. That’s another story, however.

In my books, I have placed a picture of the President of the United States. I do it often, and for two reasons:

1. Everyone knows who the President is.

2. The President’s image is public domain and I can freely use it.

For my phone and tablet books, I can also take advantage of the President’s address and phone number, which are also public information. That means the entry for President Obama that you see in my phone/tablet books is 100 percent legitimate.

I’m serious: If you have one of the books, dial the number. It’s the White House switchboard. (Don’t sent them a text, however.)

But by putting the President in my books, I’m not endorsing his politics nor am I boasting that I”m a supporter. It’s just a thing I do.

Oh, and breaking into politics again: I didn’t vote for Obama, Bush, Clinton, or Bush the first. The last President I voted for who won was Ronald Reagan.

Back to my books: The first Presidential image that appeared was Bill Clinton in my book on Microsoft Word 7.

Figure 1. Bill and Hillary in Microsoft Word 7 For Dummies.

After Clinton was re-elected, and the book was updated, I changed the image to this:

Bill Clinton in Word 97 For Dummies.

I’ll confess that I didn’t use George W. Bush as much as I thought I did. Either that, or I can’t find his picture. But he did appear in my lone, poor-selling, Windows Vista title, along with a lot of other politicians popular (or not) in the mid-2000s.

G.W. Bush, Nancy Pelosi, and others from Find Gold in Windows Vista

George Washington also made the cut in Word 2003 For Dummies:

Our First President in my Word book.

It’s nice that you don’t hear anyone smack-talking President Washington. Although, given the partisan vitriol that infects the country, I wouldn’t put it past some bastard.

And if you want to see President O’s picture, you’ll need to get one of my current books. And if the books continue to sell after 2016 — providing that people still read books then — you can see the next President’s picture.