Postings have been slow this week because of my vacation back east. But despite the time off, I did accomplish a year-long goal . . . barely. That goal was finishing Richard Ben Cramer's "What It Takes."
As I sit in a Barnes & Noble in Philadelphia, it's appropriate that I recognize the writing of a man who won a Pulitzer for his work for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
"What It Takes" is an incredible journey through the 1988 campaign for President. Published in 1992, I've had the book for years. I began reading it last January. Finishing the 1,051 page monster was an arduous task, but not because of its content. Mostly because during this busy campaign year, historical pieces were placed at the bottom of my priority reading list.
Still, for its ambition, raw emotion and vivid real-life depiction of candidates, "What It Takes" is the best political book I've ever read. Cramer takes you inside each candidate's heart and soul as he makes an epic journey towards his party's nomination. Cramer tracks Bob Dole and George Bush on the Republican side, and Michael Dukakis, Gary Hart, Dick Gephardt and Joe Biden on the Democratic side. The reading is irresistible. His writing takes you inside campaign meetings, and family dinner table conversations like you are sitting right there. At some points, he even takes you inside a candidate's head. It's an ultimate insiders book on presidential politics, and the psychology of "what it really takes."
For just a taste, take this passage, when Dick Gephardt is struggling to craft a message to jumpstart a faltering campaign in Iowa:
--- From Chapter 94, page 812,
"I gotta get it down to five words," Dick explained. "That's what it's gotta . . ." He was drawing a neat square on his legal pad, as if he somehow had to fit the words into that box. "Something people can hold on to . . . five words."
They had to be about him, but couldn't be exactly him . . . or not just him. That was the strangest part. Dick said he knew now: voters wanted someone larger than life. . . Olympian. So it couldn't be that red-haired lawyer from St. Louis who got home from work and fell asleep on the floor of his family room with his mouth open in front of the TV . . . No, they told you to be yourself, but they didn't want you to be like yourself. They wanted you to be like a President! They wanted you to be something huge for them.
"I'll tell you the weird part - is when you stop . . . I was in Louisiana. Little Town . . ." He named the town. "I don't think they'd had a Presidential candidate since, uh . . . Millard Fillmore.
"So I get there, and there's cops and motorcycles and a limousine the size of Ohio. There's the Mayor and marching bands . . . and they treat me like the King of Spain.
"I do my speech, I get back in the limo, get to the airport . . . and two hours later, I'm back in O'Hare . . . hauling my suitcase off the plane . . . carry it half a mile . . . I gotta wait in line for a lousy hot dog!
"All of a sudden, I'm back. I'm a . . . a, uh . . ." He was hunting a word.
"I'm a, uh . . . a shit-bum!"
But he wasn't going to finish as a bum. No . . . he stared down at his pad, as if he must hold the answer. But there were no words in that box.
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The book is filled with fun anecdotes like the one above that give you a real sense of the human frailties and reality of the people running for President. It taught me numerous lessons about the political process and taught me a lesson or two about how to cover it.
If you love politics and want a lifetime of political education in one sitting, read "What It Takes."
Sure it's over a thousand pages. But it is sooo worth it.
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