Customer Reviews

What It Takes: The Way to the White House

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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.

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.

Think about the best dessert you've ever eaten. Remember how delicious it was? How it melted in your mouth and how you never wanted the experience of eating it to end? Remember that experience when you pick up Richard Ben Cramer's 'What It Takes". This is the literary desert that feels like it melts in your mouth as your read: a beautiful, lyrical tale about the lives of six candidates for President in 1988.

It is hard to describe Cramer's writing style. He seems to have an uncanny knack for getting into his subject's mind and giving you a vision of the world from their perspective. He seems to find what makes his subject unique and showcase it to the world. His Sports Illustrated piece on Cal Ripken, Jr.'s consecutive games streak in September of 1995 remains the finest article I have ever read in SI since I began subscribing back in 1989. Cramer's style of writing is a joy to read. You simply never want him to stop writing, even if it is about something as mundane as observing Bush traveling to a speech.

Needless to say Bob Dole emerges as the hero of Cramer's work. (During the '96 campaign Cramer later released a separate book with just the Dole chapters.) The wounded veteran comes across as a man of stunning drive, courage and loneliness. You can't help but think of the horrific pain and suffering he endured during those years rehabilitating himself and attending law school. The Dole of Cramer's book is easy to admire and quite likeable, despite his gruff demeanor and occasionally cold treatment of people around him.

Gary Hart, in contrast, comes across poorly. (Surprise, surprise.) So much of his portion of the book is devoted to attacking the media and refuting his public persona as either an odd loner or a serial adulterer. Hart's hardscrabble life in rural Oklahoma and journey to Yale divinity school gets pushed aside. There seems to be a huge gap between Hart leaving divinity school for politics in 1960 and his role as George McGovern's campaign manager in 1972 that Cramer doesn't explain.

George Bush takes it on the chin too. Our 41st President and the winner of the 1988 contest was probably the least qualified of the six to run. Bush comes across as a likeable guy (and a hero during World War II), but no leader. While Dole is tested on the campaign trail and works hard to master the machinery of the U.S. Senate, while Dukakis is weathering fierce political storms patching together Massachusetts runaway budget, while Biden loses his wife in a car accident and nearly dies of a brain aneurysm, Bush seems to sail through adversity by relying on his resume to get plum jobs (CIA director, chairman of the RNC, ambassador to the UN and to China). Bush's charmed life and patrician view of the world hurt his reelection campaign four years later when he didn't appreciate the suffering his citizens were enduring during the recession the way a Bob Dole would have. Dole seems to have learned, through his experiences, that life is hard and people need a helping hand. Bush, in contrast, seems to have learned from his life that a smile, a handshake, a spiffy resume and knowing the CEO of a Fortune 500 company will get you far.

What of Biden, Dukakis and Gephardt? Joe Biden, the Senator from Delaware, comes across as a real leader. Elected in an upset at the age of 29, the Senator suffered terrible heartache losing his wife in a car accident after the election. You cannot help but sympathize and feel for him as he struggled to put his family together again and to take responsibility for the poor choices he made as a law student at Syracuse University in the 1960s. After Dole, I found Biden's story to be the most compelling.

Dukakis? Gephardt? I think both men come across the same, as smart, driven, intelligent guys. The theme of Gephardt's chapters is that he has been and always will be an Eagle Scout: smart, popular with his peers and elders, a success in everything. In other words, Gephardt was the guy from from school your parents wanted you to be like in middle school. Dukakis comes across as even more flawless, more driven and more sure of himself. Dukakis, in other words, was the guy from high school that graduated with a 3.9 and still thought he could do better. Both men had to tough out difficult obstacles in their lives, however.

In the final analysis, this is a book you simply do not want to end. Cramer plays no favorites and gives all six men resolutely fair treatment. This is easily one of the three greatest books I have read in my life. (Along with "Thank You For Smoking" by Christopher Buckley and "Truman" by David McCullough). This book is the literary equivalent of desert.

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.

In a previous review, I noted that "The Boys on the Bus" set the standard for political books. What It Takes exceeded that standard, and set a new one.

In this reporting of the 1988 Presidential election, Richard Ben Cramer presents THE authoritative review and analysis of the candidates, the nominee, and the eventual president.

This book is not for the faint of heart. At over 1000 pages, this book makes "Truman" seem like a Cliff's Notes review of a presidency.

What the length does provide is ubelievable insight into what made the candidates tick, and why they were successful, or unsuccessful, in conveying their story and message to the American people.

For those who want to know, this is the one book to read.

Cramer's "What it Takes" is the 10,000-pound gorilla of campaign books. In it Cramer relentlessly, sympathetically, irritably, fetishistically, exhaustively, and, yes, truthfully chronicles what's required to be a successful candidate in the death or glory hoop-jump know as a U.S. presidential campaign.

The 1988 campaign is here in its riotous colors, from Dole's personally-impersonal speech-ifying -- "Bob Dole wouldn't do that. Bob Dole thinks ..." -- to Gary Hart's own bimbroglia over Donna Rice ("Prepare to be bored . . "), to early rumblings of this Arkansas governor, who maybe ... has a shaky grasp on the truth.

This is magnificent reporting, the sort of thing that not only gives you faith in journalism, but simultaneously stakes out and successfuly claims so much difficult journalistic territory that it's hard to see how future campaign books can possible improve.

If, as some pundits like to argue, chronicling a presidential campaign is the modern-day equivalent of seeking your personal white whale, then Richard Ben Cramer has gone Ahab (at least) one better: He sat right on the whale's tail for a year, and then came back with copious notes to tell us about it -- rather than leaving it to some shmuck named Ishmael.

B.

This epic tale of the pursuit of the 1988 Presidential Nominations is the best book ever written about the unique breed of men who seek our highest office.

Cramer focuses on George Bush and Bob Dole on the Republican side and Gary Hart, Joe Biden, Dick Gephardt and Michael Dukakis on the Democratic side. Instead of giving us a campaign diary or obsessing over the minutiae of the candidates strategies, he provides virtual biographies of each man & an intimate portrait of why each of them wants to be, and is in position to be, President of the United States.

As one of the other reviewers said, if every American voter had read this book, Bob Dole would be President now, following the second Bush term.

More's the pity...

Unfortunately for Dole, Richard Ben Cramer tells the story of Dole's rise from small-town poverty to near-fatal war injury better than the Dole campaign did last year. The author paints a portrait of the 1988 presidential candidates that is vivid and human, making them more than the caricatures that we see in our television screens and newspapers. I worked for a Democratic candidate during the 1988 campaign. Cramer's storyline and energetic, somewhat frantic writing style both mirrors and reveals the hectic, seize-the-day atmosphere of a presidential campaign. His greatest contribution, however, is the tremendous insight he gives us of the men who wanted to become the best known and most powerful person in the world and believed they could do it within a matter of years by traveling to small towns and big cities as they meet with ordinary citizens the wealthiest Americans. They are both crazy and courageous and Cramer tells us how they became so as he digs through their personal histories from grade school to the present. Dole may no longer be a player on the American political scene. But Al Gore, Dick Gephardt, Jesse Jackson, Pat Robertson, and Jack Kemp still are. Thus, this book is still relevant. Above all, it's a good read. For those who want to know what it's really like inside a presidential campaign or the head of a presidential candidate, this is the best book and most unique book written since The Making of the President 1960 by the legendary T.H. White.

This is one massive tome. Clocking in at over 1000 pages, in dense ten point font, Richard Ben Cramer packs an enormous amount of information into his account of the 1988 presidential race. The scope of the book is amazing. We don't just get to see the candidates on the campaign trail, but we learn about their lives, and what experiences they endured that have created the right balance of traits that make them want to run for the American Presidency. Cramer starts out by looking at George Bush and Bob Dole, and then concentrates on Democrats such as Michael Dukakis, Richard Gephardt, Gary Hart and Joe Biden.

Cramer has a cocky and cynical writing style that doesn't hesitate to shoot daggers at those deserving of scorn. One of his biggest targets is the media, and the so-called power brokers that can make or break presidents (Cramer calls them "big-feet"). People like David Broder, Jack Germond and Howard Fineman all fall under Cramer's critical eye. Cramer shows how the media obliterates people for their own benefit. Bringing down a candidate isn't done for the good of the country over serious issues, but rather to build careers and increase the salaries of the media darlings. The question "Who is watching the media?" looms large in this book. Cramer also targets the campaign teams who mold and buff a candidate so that he can be elected, no matter what the cost. These are the folks who are brought in to dig up dirt, lie, and raise lots of money so they can buy elections. People like John Sasso and Lee Atwater are the most prominent of these figures, and are painted in less than flattering terms by Cramer.

Some of Cramer's observations can get tiresome. How many times do we need to hear about George Bush making new friend because it "will be neat"? His cynicism can get old too, but since he's dealing with politics, it's totally understandable. I've seen several of the people talked about in this book on TV recently, and I immediately thought of them in terms of this book (Hey! There's Joe Biden! I wonder if he's buying a new house!). I also laughed out loud whenever Cramer talked about Elizabeth Dole. He would write her words in North Carolina accent, and you could almost hear her talking!

Only those interested in politics will probably enjoy this book. Since some of the people in this book are still involved in politics today, this book still has merit. I read the other day that Joe Biden might be an early prospect for president in 2004. Clear your calendar, too, as this is a long read. Recommended.

Every American should read this book to understand what the Presidency has come down to, not just what happened in 1988. This book takes us behind the scenes of that election to reveal the character and personal histories of the men who ran and the qualities a candidate must have in order to endure this tough and nasty form of marketing. At the same time the reader comes to see the effects of that process on the candidates and their families. Cramer doesn't pull any punches, casting a scrutinous and unmerciful eye on the role and motives of the media and the ignorance of the American public. What drives these men to run for this office? Cramer gets at the truth and heart of the matter with reporting that is tough, intelligent, sometimes hilarious, often shocking, and always pleasing. We are left with the sad knowledge that the good man doesn't always win, and thus neither does America.