What It Takes: The Way to the White House [Hardcover]

Richard Ben Cramer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 23, 1992

An American Iliad in the guise of contemporary political reportage, What It Takes penetrates the mystery at the heart of all presidential campaigns: How do presumably ordinary people acquire that mixture of ambition, stamina, and pure shamelessness that makes a true candidate? As he recounts the frenzied course of the 1988 presidential race -- and scours the psyches of contenders from George Bush and Robert Dole to Michael Dukakis and Gary Hart -- Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Richard Ben Cramer comes up with the answers, in a book that is vast, exhaustively researched, exhilarating, and sometimes appalling in its revelations.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Who are these guys? What are they like?" Cramer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and Esquire contributing editor, answers these questions at length in this compulsively readable look at six presidential contenders in 1988: two Republicans (Dole, Bush) and four Democrats (Hart, Biden, Gephardt, Dukakis). He follows each candidate as he makes his way through the primaries, fine-tuning his stand on issues, struggling to retain his individuality while being hounded by rapacious journalists, worked over by his handlers and browbeaten by his image wizards. Cramer's use of interior monologue is brilliant, especially his portrait of Dukakis as a humorless know-it-all and Bush as a compulsive nice guy. Based on more than a thousand interviews and remarkable cooperation from the candidates, the narrative is rich in its accounts of each candidate's family background, marriage, political career and personal ordeals. Delicious quotes and anecdotes abound, such as Bush's "I deny that I have ever given my opinion to anybody about anything." First serial to Esquire; BOMC featured selection.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Defying political logic, Cramer has written a non sequitur that succeeds. In the midst of the 1992 campaign, why write such an exhaustive scorecard of the presidential candidates of 1988? By delving into the lives of these men--George Bush, Robert Dole, Gary Hart, Richard Gephardt, Joseph Biden, and Michael Dukakis--Cramer allows the reader to experience palpably what it feels like to run for president in 1992. The extended biographical sketches are among the finest of the current genre, surpassing his choppier but still satisfying transitional sections on the campaign itself. Dole's recovery from having his arm nearly blown off in World War II is a triumph as powerfully retold as Ron Kovic's story in Born on the Fourth of July (McGraw, 1976). This extended metaphor of surviving and prospering on the mean streets of American politics is recommended for public libraries and emphatically so for large collections. BOMC featured selection; previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 1/92, and "On the Campaign Book Trail," LJ 3/15/92, p. 110-112.
- Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, Pa.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 1047 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1st edition (June 23, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394562607
• ISBN-13: 978-0394562605
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.2 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #81,543 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and Very Readable, August 27, 2000

By 

Wayne A. Smith (Newark, DE) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What It Takes: The Way to the White House (Paperback)

This is a very good book that delves into the type of personalities that "have what it takes" to climb to the top ranks of presidential contenders.

Focusing on the Democrat and GOP hopefuls in 1988, Cramer paints a devastating portrait of the personalities of the ten or so aspirants. Along the way, he provides a good snapshot of modern presidential politics.

What is revealed are hard driven men, who are willing to sacrifice all other concerns to their political ambitions. Although Bush, Gore, Dukakis, Hart, Biden, Dole and the others have very different life stories and personalities, they are very similar in their focus, drive and ego. This book provides biographical sketches of each as well as an insiders view of their 1988 campaigns. Knowing Delaware's Biden a little, I would say that he captures at least that character fairly accurately.

The only complaint with this book is that Cramer takes great liberties with his characters in telling their stories. He can not know what they were thinking exactly during all the vignettes he paints, yet he writes as if he were the central character and he had intimate knowledge of conversations, feelings and dialogue. Cramer also draws many conclusions from the life portraits of his characters. This style is not unenjoyable, but one should be forwarned that the author writes in the "gonzo" journalism style that sounds more authoritative than it could possibly be. This is the type of writing that makes these types of books difficult to rely on as historical sources, but can present an interesting story.

What it Takes is very readable and enjoyable.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A true classic on presidential elections, April 20, 2005

By 

Newsman78 "newsman78" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What It Takes: The Way to the White House (Paperback)

Ben Cramer follows the major candidates in their races to become president in 1988. He reproduces their speaking and thinking styles in such an incredible way that you will never be able to think of any of these people (Bob Dole, GHW Bush, Jesse Jackson) in quite the same way you did before.

His intense focus on how the candidates act differently when in private than they do when they're out giving their stump speech makes for fascinating reading. If you're tired of dry books that are "nothing but the facts, ma'am," you'll love this well-written story.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "What it Takes" to write the perfect political book, April 19, 2003

By 

Chris DeRose (Phoenix, Arizona) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What It Takes: The Way to the White House (Paperback)

No study of modern American politics is complete without reading this book. At the center of the political universe is the presidency. What kind of people seek this office, and all of the attendant scrutiny and hardship that even the most fortunate candidates endure? What personal attributes set one candidate above the rest?

Essentially, one of these men will be the most powerful man in the world, and have a chance at shaping history. This book answers the questions "why" and "how."

Cramer understands his subjects, and the profiles of each candidate would be excellent stand-alone biographies. Extremely readable and well written, without sacrificing substance.

A truly unique and indespensible work. To find out what it takes, read this book.