A manual for political wonks - Terry Gross interviews
Halperin (ABC News) and Harris (the Washington Post and The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House ) illustrate "trade secrets" to political victory with this penetrating examination of the personal lives and political histories of the biggest names in recent presidential politics.The comments on intentionally "fuzzing Muricans' differences, for improved cooperation" and aiming for relatively high public support [Clinton] VS "focussing on the differences; never mind who 'likes' the Pres: so long as the 51% can be garnered, and the country moved-->Right" [Bush] -- is just one of a number of insightful bafflegab-free expositions.
From the losers (John Kerry and Al Gore, defeated because they "lost control of their public images") to the potential winners (Hillary Clinton, who, they assert, will have a significant fund-raising and fame advantage if she runs in 2008), the authors extract canny lessons in political strategy. But they offer particularly valuable insights into inadequately understood players like Matt Drudge, whom the authors credit as one of the greatest forces behind the Clinton impeachment and the Gore and Kerry losses, and Karl Rove, a man who, regardless of one's politics, "deserves unique notice for one reason: he is an exceptionally good political strategist."
The authors' analyses are savvy and unsentimental, without collapsing into cynicism. Though very topical, the book's comprehensiveness should make it a lasting piece of scholarship-an in-depth, indefatigable examination of American media and politics at the turn of the millennium.(Oct. 3)
It's an interesting (if utterly disgusting) compilation IMO; if I cared enough about the methodology of doping lemmings, I'd buy this. Safe bet that anyone running next Will. Seems to be all about the mass manipulation of jillions of marginally-interested semiparticipants.. who just want to get back to shopping. Ben Franklin was right about "how long the new Republic might last?" - but he knew he couldn't pick the date, only predict the coroner's Cause of Death, on the certificate.
In future campaigns, -clearly- anyone who ever utters anything 'Real' will be the butt of all the other machine-driven automata, with their Specially-tweaked game paddles holstered --- hmmm, maybe just the way that Chess..? has become now so transistorized, that even the World Champion abandons it: for politics. Yathink there just might be some parallel here?
Have a nice millennium.