Electing the President, 2000: The Insiders' View [Paperback]

Kathleen Hall Jamieson (Editor), Paul Waldman (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 30, 2001

The presidential election of 2000 was one of the most memorable of the century, a race so close it was decided by 537 votes in Florida. Two months after the Supreme Court put an end to the Florida recounts, key strategists from the Gore and Bush campaigns gathered in Philadelphia to analyze their successes and failures. In an unusually frank discussion, they disclosed the intentions, the research, and the tactics behind their decision-making on matters ranging from message development to campaign advertising to debate strategy.

Why did the Gore team not enlist President Clinton's help more extensively in the campaign? How did the Bush campaign undercut Gore's strategy on Social Security? Why was Gore unable to take credit for the strong economy? Was the press fair to the candidates? Did the mistaken calls made by the networks on election night affect the election's outcome? In Electing the President, 2000, campaign insiders offer their answers to these and many other questions.

Both candidates' inner circles are well represented. Representatives of the Bush campaign include senior adviser Karl Rove and ad producers Mark McKinnon and Alex Castellanos. Representatives of the Gore campaign include advisers Bob Shrum and Carter Eskew and pollster Stanley Greenberg. With its wealth of behind-the-scenes information, Electing the President, 2000 is required reading for anyone seeking to understand this most unusual presidential race.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A fascinating post-mortem on the 2000 contest. Veterans of the campaign share the ideas and intensions behind their strategies and reflect on the successes, failures, and 'might have beens.' . . . A book for scholars . . . political communications specialists . . . for the heroes of past and future campaigns."—Political Studies

About the Author

Kathleen Hall Jamieson is the Elizabeth Ware Packard Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication and the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author, most recently, of Everything You Think You Know about Politics . . . And Why You're Wrong. Paul Waldman is a postdoctoral fellow at the Annenberg School for Communication.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press (August 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812218027
• ISBN-13: 978-0812218022
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,140,772 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A look back at Campaign 2000, December 10, 2001

By 

Patrick Ruffini - See all my reviews

This review is from: Electing the President, 2000: The Insiders' View (Paperback)

There is much that can be learned from this compilation of the campaign strategists holding forth on Election 2000 -- much more so than in any of the other popularized accounts of the campaign and the "36 days." Especially if Bush and Gore wind up facing each other again in three years, this is a book to refer back to.

Several things struck me from this volume. One of them was the completely unrepentant manner the TV network representative dealt with the badly botched Florida call on election night. Every indication is that the media in future elections will continue to rely on the same pseudoscientific models that led to more than one mistaken call that night -- rather than relying on the actual results, which are really the only story one should follow.

Other revelations from this book will fascinate political junkies: why Karl Rove says Bush lost Iowa, how Al Gore's handlers tried to test ad hominem attacks on Bush in focus groups, why Clinton never really campaigned with Gore. Sure -- none of these revalations are juicy enough to make the pages of the National Enquirer, but they are nonetheless an impressive addition to our body of knowledge about how political campaigns are planned and executed at the highest levels.

4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting read, October 11, 2003

By 

Bruce R. Gilson (Wheaton, MD United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Electing the President, 2000: The Insiders' View (Paperback)

This book, like Larry Sabato's but unlike almost all others on Election 2000, is an attempt to be unbiased. Unlike Sabato's book, however, it is "The Insiders' View." That is to say, it was produced from a conference attended by many of the principals: Gore workers, Bush workers, and media workers. And I found it interesting as a guide to what the people were thinking as they managed the two campaigns and the media coverage. I enjoyed it, though it was not as much an analysis of the election (which most of the books were) as the campaign. It's certainly a worthwhile read.