Product Description

A wickedly funny and astute chronicle of the 1996 presidential campaign--and how we go about choosing our leaders at the turn of the century. In it Michael Lewis brings to the political scene the same brilliance that distinguished his celebrated best-seller about the financial world, Liar's Poker.

Beginning with the primaries, Lewis traveled across America--a concerned citizen who happened to ride in candidates' airplanes (as well as rented cars in blinding New Hampshire blizzards) and write about their adventures. Among the contenders he observed: Pat Buchanan, a walking tour of American anger; Lamar Alexander, who appealed to people who pretend to be nice to get ahead; Steve Forbes, frozen in a smile and refusing to answer questions about his father's motorcycles; Alan Keyes, one of the great political speakers of our age, whom no one has ever heard of; Morry Taylor--"the Grizz"--the hugely successful businessman who became the refreshing embodiment of ordinary Americans' appetites and ambitions; Bob Dole, a man who set out to prove he would never be president; and Bill Clinton, the big snow goose who flew too high to be shot out of the sky.

We watch the clichés of this peculiar subculture collide with characters from the real world: a pig farmer in Iowa; an evangelical preacher in Colorado Springs; a homeless person in Manhattan; a prospective illegal immigrant in Mexico. The politicians speak and speak, often reversing positions, denying direct quotations, mastering the sound bite, dodging hard questions, wreaking havoc on the English language. Spin doctors spin. Rented strangers (campaign workers) proliferate. One particular toe sucker goes awry. Ads are honed to misrepresent and distort. Money makes the world go round.

And the citizens are left dumbfounded or cheering empty platitudes. When trail fever breaks on Election Day, half of America's eligible voters stay home.

This book offers a striking look at us and our politics and the mammoth unlikelihood of connection between the inauthentic modern candidate and the voter's passions, needs, and desires. In telling the story, Michael Lewis once again proves himself a masterful observer of the American scene.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #81858 in Books
• Published on: 1998-07-28
• Released on: 1998-07-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Amazon.com Review
Michael Lewis, the author of Liar's Poker, which Tom Wolfe called "the funniest book on Wall Street I have ever read," now turns his eye to the peculiar method Americans use to choose their president. Beginning with the 1996 New Hampshire primary, Lewis tagged along with players both major and minor. Keeping his eyes open to the nuances of how campaigns are so carefully managed today, Lewis is able to make some insightful, damning, and often hysterically funny observations. The reporting technique is eccentric--who else would spend so much time with Morry Taylor, a rich man who ran for president in what amounted to a vanity campaign--but it works. Lewis has written a very good book that could be shelved under both humor and public affairs.

From Library Journal
Journalist Lewis's (Liar's Poker, LJ 9/1/89) chronicle of the 1996 presidential campaign examines the battle for the Republican Party nomination and the following general election. It differs from most campaign books in that its perspective is "from the bottom of the political food chain." Lewis argues that the leading candidates were so preoccupied with risk avoidance that they failed to address important concerns of the electorate. This meant that to the extent such matters were addressed at all, it was by the lesser candidates. Therefore, Lewis devotes more attention to such minor Republican candidates as Alan Keyes and Morry Taylor and to Green Party candidate Ralph Nader than to Clinton and Dole. His book is not comprehensive, but it provides a frequently humorous and occasionally insightful look into contemporary electoral politics for lay readers.?Thomas H. Ferrell, Univ. of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Tired of the conventional campaign postmortem cranked out by the likes of Elizabeth Drew or Bob Woodward? Lewis criticizes their sort of books for taking a top-down view of campaigns and politics, so he adopts a from-the-fringe perspective on the 1996 presidential extravaganza. Because the only question in doubt was who would lose to Clinton, Lewis started out following the Republicans, most closely the candidates without even the proverbial snowball's chance: Morry "the Grizz" Taylor and Alan Keyes. Something about their amateurishness (Taylor) or intense moralizing (Keyes) attracted Lewis, not to mention their disdain for hired political pros--the "rented strangers" of the subtitle. Lewis dislikes the artifice of PR-and poll-propelled politicians, and his antic journal is largely a poking at the thick protection that overlays most serious candidates, as well as a pricking of the pomposity of the bigfoot journalists who tail them. Vignettes, all telling and pointed, are the name of Lewis' game, and they unroll from Iowa to New Hampshire to San Diego to Chicago in a rich, sardonic sequence that easily makes this the most fun campaign book since Richard Ben Cramer's What It Takes (1992). The innumerable acid asides give Lewis' story a delightful digging tone that captures the zaniness, phoniness, and earnestness of a process that, in the end, was a battle for 17 percent: that, believe it or not, was the percentage of all eligible voters who voted for the 1996 winner. Gilbert Taylor

Customer Reviews

classic michael lewis
this is classic michael lewis, along the lines of _liar's poker_ rather than _the blind side_. irreverent, laugh-out-loud funny, and insightful. the author has a wonderful writing style that is easy to read, reflects a wry wit, and is oddly ... warm-hearted. prospective readers should not assume that this is a caustic, cynical treatment of politics.

the candidates covered in the book are now largely irrelevant to national politics, but mr. lewis' observations regarding the various archetypes and the political process are still illuminating. the book gave me a new appreciation for figures with whom i largely disagree on issues, like buchanan and keyes. the book also provided valuable insight into mccain, which obviously has great relevance today.

Excellent, even at ten years old
My copy is titled "Trail Fever", but it's the same book. I picked it up in the library lobby self-service carousel for a buck, mainly because I recognize Mr. Lewis as the author of MoneyBall. Boy am I glad I did - provided you're old enough to recall the 1996 presidential campain, this is a great read, telling you everything that newspaper editors refuse to. He could write about paint and make it fascinating, sort of like a witty John McPhee. I've polished it off over a number of evenings and it's been eagerly turned to. Of course, now that I'm done it's going back to the carousel.

Different and Entertaining
Entertaining book following the Republican Primaries of 1996. You learn a lot about the candidates that you may have never known, and even more so about the candidates you never even knew. There is a lot of focus on Morey Taylor. For some reason, I never remembered him, but liked a lot about him after reading this book. Good entertaining read. Primarily for political junkies.