Alpha Dogs: The Americans Who Turned Political Spin into a Global Business [Hardcover]

James Harding (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0374103674 | ISBN-13: 978-0374103675 | Publication Date: May 13, 2008 | Edition: First Edition

Alpha Dogs is the story of the men from an enormously influential campaign business called Sawyer Miller who served as backroom strategists on every presidential contest from Richard Nixon’s to George W. Bush’s. David Sawyer was a New England aristocrat with dreams of a career as a filmmaker; Scott Miller, the son of an Ohio shoe salesman, had a knack for copywriting. Unlikely partners, they became a political powerhouse, directing democratic revolutions from the Philippines to Chile, steering a dozen presidents and prime ministers into office, and instilling the campaign ethic in corporate giants from Coca-Cola to Apple. Long after the firm had broken up and sold out, its alumni had moved into the White House, to dozens of foreign countries, and into the offices of America’s blue-chip chief executives. The men of Sawyer Miller were the Manhattan Project of spin politics: a small but extraordinary group who invented an American-style political campaigning and exported it around the world.

 

In this lively and engaging narrative, James Harding tells the story of a few men whose political savvy, entrepreneurial drive, and sheer greed would alter the landscape of global politics. It is a story full of office intrigue, fierce rivalries, and disastrous miscalculations. And it is the tale of how world politics became American, and how American business became political.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The rise and fall of the Sawyer Miller Group, a political consultancy firm, makes for a whirlwind look at international electioneering in this thoroughly engrossing book. The firm grew out of a partnership among the political neophytes who essentially invented the American-style of campaigning and served as backroom strategists in every presidential contest from Nixon to George W. Bush. Editor at TheTimes in London, Harding draws on over 200 interviews to reconstruct the behind-the-scenes history of the Sawyer Miller Group's meteoric rise to power and influence, offering an intimate look at the firm's involvement in global politics—its hand in steering Corazon Aquino to power in the Philippines, its clients' successful campaigns in South America and its machinations in Chile and Israel. The author closes the main part of his narrative in the early 1990s, with the firm's crushing defeat in Peru, a company shift toward corporate clients (e.g., Coca-Cola) and an acrimonious buyout. Though Harding spends little time on domestic politics or his protagonists' personal lives, this fascinating book vividly renders political history with clear insight and rich detail. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“James Harding’s Alpha Dogs is one of those wonderful books that takes you to a time and place you may not know much about but where life as we know it was changed in real and lasting ways. This inside story of how American-style political spin was sold to the world is a fascinating and insightful glimpse into the clockwork of global power. What’s more, it’s a great read featuring complex characters, high stakes, and drama. They’ve tried to make movies about this sort of thing but movies can’t hold a candle to the real intrigue, ambition, and plot twists that in the end impacted millions of lives.”   —David Rothkopf, author of Superclass    

 

“A terrific read. Long before Karl Rove and James Carville became household names, Scott Miller and David Sawyer were peddling the techniques and political snake oil of modern American campaigns to dictators, scoundrels, and earnest and courageous reformers throughout the world.  James Harding gives us an eye-opening, sobering account of the rise and fall of one of America's premier political consulting firms, and the saints and sinners it helped get elected to office. It's the rough and tumble of modern politics and the alpha dogs who made it that way.”   —Dennis W. Johnson, George Washington University, author of No Place for Amateurs:  How Political Consultants Are Reshaping American Democracy

 

“Since Theodore White, those who write about politics strive to shape a narrative, tell a story that makes events come alive. Most fail. James Harding succeeds. Harding sits readers at his campfire and vividly tells the story of the birth over the past three decades of modern campaign consulting firms, notably the Sawyer Miller Group, a firm that started with noble intent and ended in cynicism. Harding is a man of learning, so there is a historical frame of reference, a perspective on how those who set out to educate citizens came to manipulate them both here and abroad. But what makes this story come alive are the characters: those who speak of their early hopes and of their later depravity; those who quit and those whose lives end in tragedy those who know they have had a pernicious effect on politics; and those in designer suits who don’t have a clue or don’t much care. The two most frequently cited words of the 2008 presidential campaign—“change” and “authenticity”—owe to the frustration of Americans with the spin and manipulation so commonplace in campaigns. If you want to understand why, Alpha Dogs is the book for you.”   —Ken Auletta

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First Edition edition (May 13, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374103674
• ISBN-13: 978-0374103675
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,177,024 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fascinating and suspense filled, and a must read for an election year, May 18, 2008

By 

Larry Mark "editor of MyJewishBooks.com" (nyc) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Alpha Dogs: The Americans Who Turned Political Spin into a Global Business (Hardcover)

In the early 1980's, I remember walking into the Manhattan offices of Sawyer Miller on East 60th Street, and wondering what went on beyond its reception desk's wall of television monitors. Were they part Madison Avenue, part CIA and NSC? Who were these green beret alpha dogs who parachuted into campaigns to save the day? How did a Mayflower descendant/son of a shoe company exec (Sawyer) team up with the son of a shoe salesperson (Miller)? How did Miller, the man credited with "Coke is it," "Have a Coke and a Smile," and "Great Taste, Less Filling" end up selling candidates to American and international voters? Now I know. James Harding explains the history of modern political consulting, and gives detailed accounts of the growth of the self confident Sawyer Miller Group, its tactics, clients, successes, speeches, ads, and failures, and its growth around the world and effects on international elections. It is a fascinating read. At times their negative ads turned off voters, but engaged others; some were informative, others were created to "relate" to the voter, and sometimes their clients political and corporate clients lost, proving that ads are not always magic potions. As for going negative: the author tells us that even Thomas Jefferson went negative against George Washington in 1796, and Cicero, in 63 BCE, wrote about how it is delicious to go negative against your opponent when running for political office.

The author writes on how Sawyer Miller's clients ranged from the Dali Lama and Vaclav Havel to Lech Walesa, Shimon Peres, Puerto Rico's Colon, Chile's Valdes, Ecuador's Borja, Bolivia's "Goni,"and Corey Aquino, and from Chris Dodd, Jane Byrne, and Scoop Jackson to Bruce Babbitt, as well as saintly domestic clients and international rogues known for alleged torture tactics. They worked for Amex, Drexel, BAT, Goldman, Resorts Intnl and more. The consultant who penned Newt Gingrich's Contract With America, also penned documents for Tony Blair, Boris Yeltsin, and Silvio Berlusconi. The author explains how politics became tactics instead of ideologies, and candidates were packaged like consumer products. In Harding's hands, we learn about the machinations of Black, Manafort ,Stone; Squier, Napolitan, Garth, Schwartz, Wirthlin, McCleary, Grunwald, Carville, Sawyer, Miller, and more.

Chapter 1 tells the story of the birth and growth of consulting by framing it within an exciting fly on the wall account of consultant Ned Kennan's (aka Nadav Katznelson) meeting with Boston's multi term mayor, Kevin White. Kennan, who focused on the driver's of voter behavior, loved to give bad news to the powerful, which he did to White, who was 20 points behind in the latest polls. In Chapter 2, we watch as Sawyer learns the limits of consulting, polls, personalities when he heads to Venezuela and tries to turn a pussycat of a candidate into a tiger. Chapter 3 relates the story of New Coke, its political-like battle with Pepsi, and the lesson it has for understanding polling results. By far my most favorite chapters were Chapters 4 and 5, which tell the stories of American political consulting in Israel and the Philippines. The account of Mrs. Aquino, the downfall of Marcos, and the roles of Cardinal Sin, Reagan, the U.S. media, certain Senators, and "American" consultants were so enlightening and suspenseful that I read that chapter a second time.

Briefly, to K.I.S.S. and Keep on Message, I recommend this as a lively informative and necessary read in this Presidential election year.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars outstanding, June 7, 2008

By 

Ella Scarsdale (London) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alpha Dogs: The Americans Who Turned Political Spin into a Global Business (Hardcover)

With only a limited understanding of political campaigning, mostly garnered from an appreciation of Josh in the The West Wing, I thought this book was a well-intentioned but ultimately misguided gift from a friend which might, at its most useful, end up being re-gifted. But from the first few pages I found myself completely sucked into this authoritative and beautifully written account of Sawyer Miller, a political consultancy firm which sold the art of American politics to the rest of the world. A must read for anyone who wants to read between the lines of political spin - and about the people who wrote them. Outstanding.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Illuminating Romp Through the Political Landscape, June 26, 2008

By 

Seth Faison (Princeton, NJ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Alpha Dogs: The Americans Who Turned Political Spin into a Global Business (Hardcover)

Any regular watcher of Jon Stewart and 'The Daily Show' will recognize this author, who made a hilarious appearance there a few days ago to talk about this book. The surprise is: the book behind the author is actually quite good.

It's about the political spinmeisters who brought behind-the-scenes image consulting into its modern form. James Harding bores in on one particular political consultancy, Sawyer Miller. It's an excellent choice. The opening story about Sawyer Miller's counseling of Kevin White, the Irish mayor of Boston, is equal parts funny and insightful. ("Voters don't like you!" the consultant tells the candidate, while devising a strategy that helps him win anyway.) The consultants go around the world -- helping Cory Aquino oust Marcos in the Philippines, another riveting story -- and in and out of countless elections and boardrooms to find ways for candidates to get out the right message. It is not always pretty, what goes on out of view of the camera. From bare-knuckled fighting to seat-of-the-pants improvising, the tactics of a campaign invariably tell a memorable tale.

Harding is a knowing, graceful guide. He has a sensible grasp of politics and the unpredictable dynamics that rule virtually every campaign. His writing weaves subtle observation and sharp insight into the narrative with seeming effortlessness. He always offers just the right amount of historical background to any episode. He never gets bogged down in more policy than you want. Yet I really appreciated his smart, illuminating explanation of the politics in any situation his protagonists wandered into, and they did wander far and wide.

A highly enjoyable book.