Road Show: In America, Anyone Can Become President, It's One of the Risks We Take [Hardcover]

Roger Simon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1990

It reveals just how far grown men will go--from kissing babies to riding in tanks--in order to become the leader of the free world.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Baltimore Sun syndicated columnist Simon covered the 1988 presidential campaign, and his detailed report is both informative and wickedly funny. Fairly easy on Jesse Jackson and tolerant of Dan Quayle, he wipes the floor with Gary Hart, Pat Robertson and Al Haig, adding a scalding sketch of Al Gore's staged visit to a ward of babies hospitalized with AIDS. Simon chronicles the main bout between Mr. Ice and Mr. Nice with gleeful venom. Dukakis, "the man who can eat one potato chip," is pictured as an inept and obtuse campaigner. Bush, struggling to overcome the Wimp Factor, is shown crushing his opponent with base tactics which included the exploitation of racial fear; no other issue was more important, argues Simon. Particularly revealing is his I-was-there analysis of how Bush's "media handler," Roger Ailes, generaled his client to victory. This comprehensive account of the campaign is a treat for anyone who needs reminding of how revolting a "road show" it was.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

To Jack W. Germond and Jules Witcover's sober and critical Whose Broad Stripes and Bright Stars? ( LJ 9/1/89) and Englishman Matt Ridley's astute and challenging Warts and All (LJ 3/1/90) now are added two more accounts of the 1988 campaigns of those who sought to occupy the Oval Office. The methods of these "person who would be President" sagas are too familiar to require much exegesis. The candidates are put in the pillory, their platforms, strategies, behind-the-scenes maneuverings, shortcomings, pranks, errors of judgment--all the giddy aspects of the political show--are held up for observation and in some cases ridicule. Simon, a columnist for the Baltimore Sun, and Taylor, a political reporter for the Washington Post, follow the recipe quite faithfully. Both authors take the candidates from that first gleam in the eye to the final nomination, showing how each tries to appeal to the voter's pride and prejudice. In true journalistic fashion Simon tells what happened, leaving readers to draw their own conclusions. Taylor's intention is not only to recount the events, but to offer some estimable cleansing measures. By now much of what the authors report is old hat, but separately they manage to add something hitherto not known. The question librarians must ask is how many of these Presidential election guidebooks are needed; checking circulation tallies on the earlier election books will help. See also Sidney Blumenthal's Pledging Allegiance , reviewed in this issue, p. 237.--Ed.
- A.J. Anderson, Graduate Sch. of Library and Information Science, Simmons Coll., Boston
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 356 pages
• Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux (T); 1st edition (October 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374251207
• ISBN-13: 978-0374251208
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,737,968 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Roger Simon is the Chief Political Columnist of The Politico, an award-winning journalist and a New York Times best-selling author.

He has won more than three dozen first-place awards and is the only person to win twice the American Society of Newspaper Editors Distinguished Writing Award for Commentary. He has also been a runner-up for the award.

Also, he has won the National Headliner Award three times including 2005 for his coverage of the 2004 presidential election. He won a National Headliner Award in 2008 for his coverage of the presidential campaign and in 2009 was a finalist for the National Journalism Award for commentary.

His work has been included in the "Best Newspaper Writing in America" in three different years.

In reviewing a collection of his work titled "Simon Says: The Best of Roger Simon" (Contemporary Books), Martha Jablow of The New York Times compared him to H.L. Mencken and Russell Baker. The book, published in both hardcover and paperback, has been translated into Japanese.

His first book on presidential politics titled "Road Show" was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux and received rave reviews from the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Newsweek and Time.

His book on the Clinton administration and national politics titled "Show Time" was published by Times Books/Random House and hit the New York Times best-seller list on March 29, 1998.

His book on the 2000 presidential race, "Divided We Stand," was published by Crown Publishers/Random House in 2002. The Boston Globe said, "Simon is known for
his droll humor and bracingly pithy distillations of complex issues."

Simon is now working on a history of presidential campaigning from FDR to Barack Obama to be published by Henry Holt and Company in 2011.

The Associated Press has called Simon's work "sensitive, relevant and written with understated elegance."

Simon's column is distributed by Creators Syndicate to newspapers throughout the world.

Simon has been on numerous television and radio programs including "Meet the Press," "Face the Nation," the "Today" show, "Good Morning America," "Hardball with Chris Matthews," the "Charlie Rose Show," "Reliable Sources," and "Good Morning America." Simon was also a regular weekly panelist on CNN's "Lou Dobbs."

Based in Washington, D.C., Simon contributes articles to national magazines ranging from The New Republic to the New York Times Book Review and speaks nationally. His work has also appeared in Slate, The Washington Post and the Washington Monthly.

Simon was a staff columnist at The Baltimore Sun from 1984 to 1995 and first gained renown as an investigative reporter and columnist during his 12 years at the Chicago Sun-Times.

In 1998, he became the White House Correspondent of the Chicago Tribune and covered the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

In 1999, he joined U.S. News & World Report as its Chief Political Correspondent and then Political Editor.

Simon is a three-time winner of the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award, a three-time winner of the Peter Lisagor Award from the Chicago Headline Club, an eight-time recipient of the Page One Award from the Chicago Newspaper Guild and also was the first non-black journalist to win a national writing award from the National Association of Black Journalists.

Simon has also won five United Press International Awards and four Associated Press Awards. He has won three Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild Awards, a
Maryland-Delaware-District of Columbia Press Association Award and is a three-time winner of the Society of Professional Journalists, Maryland Professional Chapter Award.

He is a two-time winner of the Washington Monthly Journalism Award for political reporting.

When he won second place in the Ernie Pyle Memorial Award competition, the judges cited his "extraordinary ability to capture the story in terms of ordinary people."

In 1995, Simon won first-place awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Chesapeake Associated Press.

In 2005 he won the National Headliner Award for magazine writing for his coverage of the 2004 presidential election. In 2004 he won the Washington Headliner Award for magazine writing.

He joined Bloomberg News in January 2006 as its first Chief Political Correspondent.

Simon was born in Chicago, Ill., and has a B.A. degree in English from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. He has also worked for the Waukegan (Ill.) News-Sun and the City News Bureau of Chicago.

Simon has been a Poynter Media Fellow at Yale University, a Hoover Media Fellow at Stanford University, and in the spring of 2005 was a Kennedy School of Government Institute of Politics Fellow at Harvard University.