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4.0 out of 5 stars
Why We Never Got President Hart, March 21, 2001
This review is from: See How They Run: Electing the President in an Age of Mediaocracy (Hardcover)
Make no mistake, Paul Taylor is a gifted author and a talented journalist.
This is the story of Paul Taylor the Washington Post reporter that broke the story of Gary Hart and Donna Rice and ended Hart's chances at being President in 1988. More importantly, Taylor asked "the question" that changed the way media cover politicians.
"Did you commit adultery?" There it is. Simple by today's standards of DNA dresses and DWI Presidents.
By understand what happened to Hart, you can see the Clinton circus coming a mile away. Taylor gives honest account of one of the first political/media "feeding frenzies."
If you believe that Taylor didn't understand the watershed moment in politics he was creating when he asked Hart "the question" (and I'm not sure I buy it) than you can really get into Taylor's first hand account of the campaign, the challenge, the chase and the media explosion that followed.
The reason I gave it four stars and not five, is that Taylor gets too preachy in the end by using his experience with the demise of Hart to tell us what is wrong with Presidential politics and how we need to fix it.
The fact that he is right has nothing to do with it. He is right, but that's not why I bought the book.
In short: good writing, good story, good reference point to understand the media/presidential politics relationship. Worth the time to read but not going to change history as Taylor clearly hoped it would.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Snapshots From An Accidental Player, March 24, 2002
This review is from: See How They Run: Electing the President in an Age of Mediaocracy (Hardcover)
Paul Taylor is the reporter who used the `A word' to derail Gary Hart's floundering campaign in 1988. It's rare that a reporter has as much influence over the nomination process, and the book provides a unique insight into the campaign from someone who, however briefly, had a very real effect on the election. At first it might seem that Taylor's emphasis on his own actions smack of delusions of grandeur, but he is really out to examine the roll of the press in a campaign, and only emphasizes his role early on because of his importance in bringing down Hart. The book is not a nuts and bolts exploration of the trench warfare of the election in the tradition of Witcover and Germond, but rather a serious of snapshots of important moments in the campaign, well detailed and critically examined. As such it is not the best source for a detailed examination of the whole campaign but more a superb companion piece for such books. It also is an excellent summery for those who want a more general overview of the campaign. Highly recommended.
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