Falling Up: How a Redneck Helped Invent Political Consulting (Politics Media) [Hardcover]

Raymond D. Strother (Author)

Book Description

Series: Politics Media | Publication Date: February 2003

This brash and rollicking autobiography is a potent primer of the rough-and-tumble world of political consulting by one of its founding fathers and preeminent experts. A cross between a patriotic redneck raconteur and a TV-savvy renaissance man, Raymond D. Strother is unafraid to name names and refuses to mince words in tales of what he calls "the beauty and gore" of American politics.

Strother begins with his blue-collar Democratic upbringing in southeast Texas and the crash course in Louisiana politics and corruption he received following graduate school. With the pervasion of TV and his mastery of the subtleties of political commercials, he entered into the big-time senatorial and congressional races of the 1970s and early 1980s. Strother's book reaches its dramatic climax in the never-before-fully told story of Gary Hart's 1984 presidential campaign; the author crystallizes an image of Hart as a brilliant, enigmatic, but ultimately self-destructive man and a democracy increasingly bedazzled by celebrity, blinded by breaches of privacy. Further adventures of Strother with the Clintons, Al Gore, and Louisiana notables, as well as famous consultants such as Dick Morris, Matt Reese, and James Carville, both tantalize and instruct.

Falling Up is a wildly entertaining, controversial, but finally optimistic political and media success story that will thrill and inspire a broad range of students, academics, journalists, and anyone spellbound by American politics.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Strother, a self-described redneck and political hack, has an interesting tale to tell, which he does in a hail-fellow-well-met tone probably acquired on the campaign trail. His first political bruisings came in notoriously corrupt Louisiana, where he hung out his shingle as a political consultant in the 1960s, before anyone really knew what that meant. Strother winged it, advising both unknowns and A-list candidates, including Gary Hart and Bill Clinton. He is such a raconteur that even the travails of the lesser lights make fascinating reading, but it is when he trots out the big guns--for example, the story about the time Bill Clinton beat up Dick Morris--that readers will sit up and take notice. The last few chapters offer a world-weary assessment of what has gone wrong with political campaigns. This consultant says the blame falls in part on . . . well, consultants, but that mostly it is the candidates (both Clinton and Bush take criticism) who are at fault for placing winning above principle. Somehow he proves it was not always thus. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Raymond D. Strother is president of the firm Strother, Duffy Strother and lives in Washington, D.C., and Montana. He is former president of the American Association of Political Consultants, a former fellow at the John F. Kennedy Institute of Politics at Harvard University, a member of the Louisiana State University Journalism Hall of Fame, the recipient of a 2001 Pollie Award for the Best Political Television, and the author of the political novel Cottonwood.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 326 pages
• Publisher: Louisiana State Univ Pr; 1ST edition (February 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807128562
• ISBN-13: 978-0807128565
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #442,230 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Genuine, honest memoir of politics, April 26, 2003

By 

Timothy S. Hays (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Falling Up: How a Redneck Helped Invent Political Consulting (Politics Media) (Hardcover)

Raymond Strother's warts-and-all memoir of his life as a political consultant is a fun, must-read for all students of American politics. Strother's career began when there was still some innocence in campaigning, and winds up during the frustrating years of ego-driven hacks whose self-importance overshadows their candidates, to the detriment of government. Ray Strother's genuinity was formed the old-fashioned way: he grew up poor and learned to appreciate other people.

Strother's tales of Southern political skirmishes will entertain. He's a smooth storyteller who should write more, now that he's out of the maelstrom of the Washington kill-or-be-killed consultant circuit.

Caveat: I am a Republican, and although Strother's life has been spent around Democrats, his tales are compelling across the board.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great history to interesting present, May 20, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Falling Up: How a Redneck Helped Invent Political Consulting (Politics Media) (Hardcover)

Ray Strother's chronicle of the industry that brings us our leaders is fascinating. His story is also an "American Success Story". From the giants of the U.S. Senate includingRussell Long (recently passed) and Lloyd Bentsen to today's leaders in the Senate - Mary Landrieu, Blanche Lincoln and Zell Miller - Strother has woven a tapestry of stories that enthral and make us consider our democracy.

This is a first-rate, fast-read of an industry that is seldom discussed but that brings us world leaders. Ad agency execs marvel at their brilliance but at the end of the day they sell sugar water to children. Strother has given an insight to a world seldom seen, but of importance to all of us.

Get the book - read it and pass it around. This is one of those books that flys below the radar but could become a movie.

happy reading

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Honesty is the best teacher, April 14, 2003

By 

Doris Zbornik (Wooster, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Falling Up: How a Redneck Helped Invent Political Consulting (Politics Media) (Hardcover)

The publishing world is awash with simplistic and incomplete "how-to" books. Veteran political consultant Raymond Strother, however, has written a thoroughly instructive political consulting text book, and it reads like a novel! Honorably and honestly, he has succeeded in creating a tome useful for academics and practitioners alike. He illustrates, through an accounting of his own career, why political consulting deserves to be treated and taught as a profession.
It is the emotion of this book that is palpable and raw and real that offers the best insights, however. The book may not sit well with the weak-hearted, lazy or naive, but for politically-driven persons with a longing desire to serve, the book has immeasurable value. If you ascribe to and want to help lift up the highest ideals of political service, involvement and enlightenment, then buy this book for your permanent collection. Compare your own bewildering consulting experiences to painful lessons learned by him. Liberate your political soul. Mr. Strother has made a difference; maybe you can, too.