The Battle of the Books

Silvio Berlusconi, normally a fast talker, purposefully slows down the pace, even though he's in a hurry to get to his next appointment. "There are so many things," he says, "the people don't know." As head of the center-right Freedom Alliance Berlusconi is expected to become Italy's next Prime Minister. He's worried that much of the electorate doesn't know who the real Silvio Berlusconi is, other than the richest man in Italy. His enemies would undoubtedly agree.

Because political advertising on television is forbidden — under a law passed to avoid the possibility of Berlusconi making use of...