5784. The Way To Win Taking the White House In 2008 by Marl Halperin and John F. Harris (read 30 Mar 2022) This book was published in 2006 and seeks to tell how the 2008 election can be won. It spends lots of time extolling Karl Rove and how he won the 2000 election for George W. Bush in 2000--never admitting that he almost lost and that five U.S. Supreme Court justices were instrumental in saying Bush won. The book is mostly laudatory of Rove and Bush. It also acknowledges that Bill Clinton--much more decisively than Bush--won in 1992 and 1996, but is less admiratory of the skill he employed. The authors talk about the 2008 election, projecting that McCain and Hillary would be the likely nominees. It is of interest that Barack Obama is not mentioned even once in the entire book. I did not enjoy reading the book usually which today is only of historical interest, since the political field has so drastically changed since the book was written. Obviously, I should have read it in 2007, although I would not have liked it then either. ( )

Subtitled "Taking the White House in 2008," the recent political strategy book "The Way to Win" could be consigned to a stack of pre-election books that appear before elections (usually written, or ascribed, to potential candidates) -- at best, out-of-date by the time the election is held or, at worst, barely worth the effort to read at all. This would be a terrible mistake. Although keyed to the 2008 presidential election (most likely by the publisher's marketing department), the book is better seen as a strategic appreciation of national electoral politics in the first decade of the 21st century.

Authors Mark Halperin (now affiliated with Time Magazine and MSNBC, but at the time this book was published still working for long-time employer ABC News) and John Harris (now editor-in-chief of Politico, but then political editor for The Washington Post) have compiled and explained a host of trade secrets made apparent in the past 15 years. In particular, they highlight the strategic approaches of the foremost political tacticians of the Democratic and Republican Parties, respectively Bill Clinton and Karl Rove.

Judging by their current positions, both men are seen as prominent, if not preeminent, experts on American politics. They also are both closely identified with recent developments on Internet coverage of politics. Halperin skyrocketed to fame with his daily email "The Note," which was seen as particularly influential inside the beltway, until Halperin began "The Page" when he moved to Time. At Politico, Harris serves as a leader of a journalistic enterprise which focuses at least as much on the Internet for readership as on the print copy. Also, both men bring burgeoning portfolios of sources cultivated over their many years covering Washington politics.

To oversimplify a bit, the trade secrets fall into two categories, managing the candidate's image in the age of the "media freak show," which serves as a basically equal-opportunity assailant (with right-leaning tendencies) against the reputations of everyone, and building an extensive network of contacts and databases to target your message to contributors, base supporters, and undecideds. Using positive examples, with a handful of negative counter-examples ("The Way to Lose") from the failed campaigns of Bob Dole, Al Gore, and John Kerry, Halperin and Harris show how the careful use of these trade secrets allowed Bill Clinton, especially during his comeback periods of 1992 and 1994-1996, and George W. Bush, during his impressive electoral run from 2000-2005, to control issues and images in ways more popularly and effectively than their opponents.

At its best, the book offers an astute description and appreciation of the mechanics of the "media freak show," personified by Matt Drudge (though certainly not limited to or overly guided by him anymore). It also offers a specific explanation for Rove's "evil genius," rooted in his experiences of campaigning through direct-mail pamphlets (in some ways, a partisan precursor to the "media freak show's" assault on reputations).

The book might be faulted for an overemphasis on media issues, though given the expertise of the authors in journalism and the media, this is more likely a strength. A more telling limitation, also rooted in the years of beltway experience, is the frequent assumption that the reader knows certain characters and events, which could prove a challenge to any reader who is not a political junkie. On the whole, though, the book is entertaining and highly informative, a pleasant read about significant matters. ( )

The problem with writing a book like this is that it can get dated very quickly. This book is no exception. The authors take the majority of this book to extol the virtues of Karl Rove. Unfortunately the authors take no time to really examine the record of Rove.

They admit that the percentage received by Bush in 2000 was several points less than he expected. However, they still extol the campaign as being a celebration of his talents. Unmentioned is that had all of the people that intended to vote for Gore actually done so, Bush and Rove would have a historical place slightly above Michael Dukakis and Bob Shrum.

Fortunately, the 2006 election and the aftermath has shown the fallacy of the Rovian principles as a governing strategy.

I recommend another book. ( )