Take a behind-the-scene look at the campaign trail By Deborah Acostawith these accounts of elections past
It may seem impossible to believe, but the current U.S. presidential race still has more than six months left to run.
Whether you are savoring every dramatic moment or counting down the days to November, you may find instructive insight from the stories of elections past, told by those with a front seat to history.
From the classic "The Boys on the Bus" to "The Girls in the Van," insider accounts of political campaigns have become a genre in their own right, each offering a unique perspective on the times.
Timothy Crouse's "The Boys on the Bus" depicts a male world of politics and press devoid of computers and cell phones in 1972's Nixon-McGovern presidential campaign.
Beth Harpaz's "The Girls in the Van," on the other hand, is teeming with female journalists armed with BlackBerrys, laptops, and diaper bags during Hillary Clinton's Senate run in 2000.
Some of these "on the campaign trail" accounts have become instant classics for the insight they provide on the ongoing political scene. These books are enlightening on a cultural, historical, and philosophical level; they reflect our nation's changing values, and reveal a lot about human behavior that can be applied to various aspects of our lives.
But how to choose among all of the campaign books crowding the store shelves these days, some of which may be as full of hot air and hype as a long-winded political candidate? Here, four area professors offer their picks.
The Kennedy-Nixon election of 1960 was one of the closest in U.S. history, and the first ever to include televised presidential debates. In fact, some credit the way the candidates appeared under the glare of the TV lights — Kennedy's more youthful, vigorous appearance versus Nixon's 5 o'clock shadow — with helping tip the election in Kennedy's favor. The race inspired the book that was the first of its class: "The Making of The President, 1960," by Theodore H. White. "It was the first book ever written on the history of presidential campaigns," says Ken Wald, professor of political science at the University of Florida.
White continued to write these accounts for years, and many authors soon followed. The latest of these books is "The Elections of 2004," a collection of essays about the presidential campaign trail, edited by Michael Nelson. According to Dr. Richard Conley, also a professor of political science in UF, it includes many statistics, but it's not so scholarly that the average layman couldn't give it a try.
In "Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72," Hunter S. Thompson employs his sardonic wit to detail the McGovern vs. Nixon campaign in a narrative format, where Thompson acts as main character to the circus act of the presidential campaign. Extremely subjective in opinion while surprisingly objective in fact, this book makes for a fun, informative read.
Crouse's "The Boys On The Bus" is a parallel account of the same election, written by a Rolling Stone colleague of Thompson's. It details life on the road for journalists covering the campaign en masse. Unlike Thompson's book, it concentrates more on the plight of the journalists: how they often failed to provide fresh perspectives on the campaign because they relied on the same source for information packages — the Nixon campaign staff. This phenomenon, dubbed "pack journalism," is still an issue in political journalism today.
A recent update of that book is "The Girls In The Van: A Reporter's Diary of the Campaign Trail," by Beth J. Harpaz, who spent two years following Hillary Clinton's U.S. Senate run. It provides a vivid portrait of Clinton during her campaign, as well as a funny narrative about the unique experience of a young journalist mom's life on the road. By the end of the book, Harpaz can't decide whether Clinton is a genuine public advocate or a scheming politician.
"A Woman In Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton," by Carl Bernstein, provides a more in-depth portrait. Bernstein, one of two Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists who broke the Watergate story for The Washington Post, explores Clinton's upbringing as well as her time as first lady and senator from New York. He draws from hundreds of interviews, with both her friends and foes, to paint a revealing portrait of the former first lady.
If you're still puzzling over what happened in Florida in the 2000 presidential election, Julian M. Pleasants, history professor at the University of Florida, recommends his book, "Hanging Chads: The Inside Story of the 2000 Presidential Recount in Florida."
The "chads" of the title, of course, are the small pieces of paper punched out of an election ballot."If you don't punch it all the way through, it hangs," says Pleasants, adding that Palm Beach County used these punch card machines in the 2000 election. When they started counting the ballots, they couldn't determine the intent of the voter. "Did they intend to punch it? Did they pull back? The whole election was hanging on these hanging chads," he says. Later, the recount of the votes of several Florida counties was halted when the case came to the U.S. Supreme Court. "It was the first time in American history that an election was decided by one vote: five to four in the Supreme Court," Pleasants says. Former Senator George McGovern — the tragic hero of Thompson's "Fear and Loathing" — has named it the "definitive book on the disputed presidential election of 2000."
"From Yellow Dog Democrats to Red State Republicans: Florida and Its Politics since 1940," by David R. Colburn, professor of history and former provost at the University of Florida, is another book on Florida politics written by a Gainesville native. It details Florida's rise in power from a "sleepy, impoverished Southern outpost" to one of the most significant swing states in the nation. Colburn also recommends "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln," by Doris Kearns Goodwin.
"That book is brilliant," he says. It details Lincoln's relationship with three members of his cabinet, all of whom were hostile opponents for the Republican nomination of 1860. At 700 pages, the book might seem daunting, but Colburn promises an easy read. "When my students saw the size of the book they were a little miffed, but after they read it, they were glad they did." Barack Obama is also fan, possibly because of an affinity with Lincoln, another lawyer from Illinois who was accused of being inexperienced when he ran for the presidency.
Colburn also recommends "Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton," by David Gergen. "A terrific book, and it's not too thick," he says. Gergen writes about what makes a great president by examining Clinton, Nixon, Ford, and Reagan, all of whom he served as a speechwriter and adviser.
How about the methods presidents employ to get to the top? "Life's a Campaign: What Politics Has Taught Me About Friendship, Rivalry, Reputation, and Success," by Chris Matthews, the host of Hardball with Chris Matthews, presents the techniques that presidents and senators use to win, and how we, too, can master the art of persuasion. The book also provides a candid account of Matthews' own career in the political arena, which included four years as a presidential speechwriter during the Carter administration and six years as a top aide to longtime Speaker of the House of Representatives Tip O'Neill.