Customer Reviews

The Election Game and How to Win It

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How this book is out of print baffles me because it's one of the best treatises on campaign politics ever written.

Joe Napolitan was one of the first modern professionals to go by the title of political consultant. While the author goes out of his way in the preface to mention that the book "is not a textbook on how to run a political campaign," the personal campaign experiences recounted throughout the book provide excellent insight into the electoral/campaign process. This 1972 edition only gets 4 out of 5 stars because recent political reforms (delegates selected by primary) and technological advances (marketing, advertising, Internet) make some portions of the book outdated.

There are plenty of other how to/do it yourself campaign manuals out there ("Winning Your Election the Wellstone Way" is one of the best) for you to buy. This book, however, is a good read that provides some good inside baseball on the political blood sport we call elections. While recent books such as "The Audacity to Win" by David Plouffe give a good frame of reference for the reader they never delve into both the HOW and the WHY of the nuts and bolts of winning elections. Joe Napolitan does both and because human nature hasn't changed much since 1972 the book is still very much relevant