Customer Reviews

The Quest for the Presidency 1984

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It seems unnecessary to point out that this book is only for the true political junkie, since it's unlikely that anyone else would pick up a 700-page book with Clinton, Bush, and Perot on the cover in the first place. But for diehard politicos like myself, this book is a terrific account of the '92 campaign. The lengthy passages on political strategy may be trying for some, but the behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of the three major campaigns (not to mention those of Jerry Brown, Pat Buchannan, et al) are fantastic.

During Ron Paul's pursuit for the White House in 2008, many people attempted to make parallels to his grassroots campaign and that of Ross Perot's. Since I was in middle school during the 1992 election and since there were no other books that I could find that emphasized Perot's 1992 campaign, I decided to read "Quest For the Presidency, 1992".

First off, as every reviewer has noted, this book really is for the political junky. The book details the primaries of both parties as well as the 1992 Presidential Election. The book gives you significant insight into each of the three campaigns as well as the Tsongas, Buchanan and Brown bids to win their parties' nomination.

What it doesn't do is really examine the actual candidates previous to their campaigns. However, the book takes on a narrative feel and makes the political process much more entertaining than I would have anticipated. I was surprised to find out that Perot didn't really cost the election for Bush (as many Republicans have maintained), but instead made the results much more respectable for Bush. The author's painted the Perot campaign as simply a revolt against the established political parties and portrayed Perot as someone who outlined problems without giving solutions, something I was surprised to find out. The authors' characterization of Clinton and Bush were not much better. Clinton is portrayed as a un-trust worthy politician from a suffering state and Bush is shown as a disinterested, out-of-touch, career politician that never had a plan and could never reach the general public. (Given these two characterizations, its no wonder Perot had so much success.)

All in all, if you are looking for a detailed account of the 1992 election, I can't imagine a more thorough book is out there on the subject. If you are looking for more of a background on Ross Perot, this book only gives a small glimpse into the man and primarily focuses on his efforts within this campaign.

Since 1960, books written from inside presidential campaigns have become commonplace. The Quest series was, I believe, around for three presidential elections (1984, 1988, and 1992) before Newsweek slimmed down the format and stopped using the Quest label. I'm not sure why they abandoned it after 1992, as I found this book to be very strong.

I have watched the War Room and read a few other books about the 1992 election, but not dealt with it so comprehensively. This book even gave careful attention to candidacies that were over before they began like Virginia Governor Wilder's. All of the major candidates get comprehensive treatment here, from Clinton, Bush, and Perot on down to Tsongas, Buchanan, Kerrey, Harkin, and Brown. It is hard to tell with books written this way how accurate the dialog is, since it is unlikely the authors really transcribed some of these conversations word for word. But their take feels right.

As another reviewer commented, this book also disputed what I had long been told about the 1992 election, that Clinton only won because Perot was present. If this book is to be believed, Clinton would have won in a landslide without Perot as they combined the anti-Bush vote.

One downside to the book, and perhaps to modern presidential campaigns, is its use of the campaign's own focus groups to get reactions. Instead of talking to voters in New Hampshire or other important states, the authors use the campaigns focus groups to get reactions. The book does note at one point that focus groups can kill creative ideas, but that does not stop what I thought was the book's over reliance on them.

That quibble aside, the book takes you from Bush's highs in 1990 to his defeat in 1992, giving careful consideration to all his would-be successors, the strange Perot insurgency that is now almost forgotten, the effort to kick Quayle off the ticket, and much, much more.


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Amazon does not want to separate the Quest for the Presidency 1984, 1988, and 1992, so in case anyone is looking for a review of the '84 or '88 editions, here they are:

1984-I highly recommend it. It is not quite as long and detailed as 92, but does give ample attention to Hart, Jackson, Mondale, Glenn, and Reagan, with some acknowledgement of the presence of Cranston and Hollings. The book does a nice job of demonstrating the virtual inevitability of Reagan's reelection while painting Mondale in a good light. It also presents Geraldine Ferraro, the first of two woman VP nominees thus far, in a much more positive fashion than most studies have since then. Perhaps most interesting is the treasure trove of campaign memos in the back of the book and the discussion of former President Nixon's interactions with Reagan and his team, including a letter to buck Reagan up after his first, troubled '84 debate.

1988-Another good entry in the series covering all of the candidates (unlike the longer, somewhat superior, and much more detailed "What It Takes" about the same election). The '88 campaign was a lot dirtier than the few that proceeded it, with George Bush using a combination of attack ads and the Dukakis campaign's own ineptitude to turn a huge deficit into a 40 state victory. The Dukakis campaign comes off extremely poorly here: dysfunctional, insular, and unresponsive. Susan Estrich, who took over the campaign during the primaries when Dukakis' right hand man was forced out by scandal, fares especially poorly. Reading about the Bush campaign's views of Quayle is particularly interesting when you realize he was the sitting VP when this was published. Jim Baker and others pulled no punches in presenting their limited view of him to the reporters who wrote this book. As with the other Quest books, this starts about two years before the election and follows the major and not so major candidates (including Pat Schroeder, Gary Hart, Al Gore, Paul Simon, Jesse Jackson, Dick Gephardt, Joe Biden, Bob Dole, Pat Robertson, Al Haig, Dukakis, and Bush) all the way to the night of the election.

Now, I'm not going to deny that I'm a political junkie, and have re-read Teddy White's books on the Making of the President several times, but this is actually, to my mind, a superior book. It's certainly written in a much more interesting and accessible manner.

The most interesting sections of the book, to me, were those that dealt with Ross Perot. I was one of the many who, at the time, was infatuated with the idea of the Saviour from Texas. Unfortunately, the very things that made him so interesting to so many people also held the seeds of his demise in 92.

Surprisingly, to me at least, one person who seems to come out of the book surprisingly well, is Dan Quayle. While not a genius, he is shown in a much better light than you would have expected given the brutal press coverage he received from 1988 on.

All in all, I would heartily recommend this book to anybody who has an interest in the way we chose our Presidents, and what we put them through on the road to the White House.

Howard

I found this book to be extremely interesting and full of insight about the candidates and their campaigns. It also effectively represents the overall mood of the campaign and the issues facing the US at the time. Fascinating for anyone who is interested in presidential elections, and politics generally.