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Concessions of a Serial Campaigner
Simon & Schuster
June 2007
On Sale: June 5, 2007
544 pages
ISBN: 0743296516
EAN: 9780743296519
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Political
He was named by The Atlantic Monthly as "the most
sought-after strategist in the Democratic party." He was
targeted by National Review as the Democratic Party's
"poet goon." From his unique perspective, Robert Shrum gives
us an epic and personal story of the struggle for power in
America during the past four decades. With wit and
humor, rare candor, and a wealth of detail, he vividly
recounts the real personalities and real forces that shaped
the outcome of the closest and most important elections of
our time. We are there with Shrum in the back rooms, on the
planes, and in the motorcades with Ted Kennedy, Al Gore,
John Kerry, John Edwards, and Bill and Hillary
Clinton. Shrum reveals the manipulations and
limitations of old and new forms of political persuasion,
from the historic and sometimes controversial speeches he
wrote to the negative ads he created for national and
statewide candidates, from prepping presidential nominees
for critical debates to the deployment of the new political
weapon, the Internet. He lifts the curtain on decisive
moments. Did John Kerry and John Edwards actually believe in
the Iraq war they voted for? What was the real reason the
Kerry campaign didn't respond faster to the Swift Boat
attacks? Why didn't Al Gore let Bill Clinton campaign
all-out in 2000? How did Clinton get through the first
perilous week of the Lewinsky scandal? This is a
provocative journey through recent history: George
McGovern's antiwar campaign of 1972, the improbable rise of
Jimmy Carter, Senate campaigns that made historic
breakthroughs and shaped the presidential contests of the
future, the gifts that made Bill Clinton a great politician
-- and the circumstances and calculations that kept him from
being a great president. As strategist, adviser, and
often friend to the leaders he enlisted with, Shrum shows
them as they are, with their strengths and human weaknesses
-- as well as his own. Assailed as a populist who
pushed the Democratic Party, in a phrase he coined, "to
stand for the people, not the powerful," Shrum argues that
unlike Republicans from Reagan on, Democrats fall short,
politically or in office, when they trim their convictions
and walk away from fundamental issues -- like universal
health coverage. This is one of the most fascinating
books ever written about the victories and defeats, the
causes and candidates, the "flawed heroes" that drive the
high drama of American politics.
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