The Candidate: Behind John Kerry's Remarkable Run for the White House - Hardcover

Alexander, Paul

3.6

20 ratings by Goodreads

9781573222938: The Candidate: Behind John Kerry's Remarkable Run for the White House

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1573222933 ISBN 13: 9781573222938

Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover, 2004

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Discusses the campaign of John Kerry, including behind the scenes information and strategies for the presidential campaign from July to November.

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About the Author:

Paul Alexander is a former reporter for Time magazine and has written for Rolling Stone, The New York Times Magazine, The Nation, New York, The Village Voice, and the Guardian. Alexander is the author of Man of the People: The Life of John McCain (2002) as well as biographies of Sylvia Plath, J. D. Salinger, and James Dean. Until recently, he was the co-host of "Batchelor & Alexander," a nationally syndicated talk radio show on the ABC Radio Network. Alexander has also directed a documentary on Kerry's Vietnam years, titled Brothers in Arms.

From Publishers Weekly:

Tall, lean, heroic and "decidedly Lincolnesque" is the portrait of John Kerry that emerges from this shallow campaign hagiography. Journalist Alexander (Man of the People: The Life of John McCain) gained insider access to the campaign after he wrote a prescient Rolling Stone article touting Kerry as the Democratic front-runner, and this symbiotic relationship continues here. He acknowledges Kerry’s early problems finding the right tone, but after a campaign shakeup and a makeover in which Kerry loosens up (e.g., he starts diving into audiences for Phil Donahue-style Q&As and learns to "connect on a human level") the candidate becomes a juggernaut. From then on the book is a montage of endorsements, primary triumphs and sound bites from Kerry victory speeches. Vignettes include a breathless recap of Kerry’s Vietnam exploits, tearful communions with fellow veterans, manly photo ops of the candidate piloting a chopper or blasting pheasants from the sky, and a snuggly interview in which Kerry and wife Teresa Heinz talk about their relationship. Substantive issues, like Kerry’s ties to corporate lobbyists and support of NAFTA and the war in Iraq, or Heinz’s refusal to release her tax returns, are fleetingly mentioned and then dropped without comment. Instead, Alexander channels his critical impulses entirely into a gloating attack on the Howard Dean campaign (and, in particular, on Dean’s "bizarre" and "unsettling" howl during the Iowa primary), accusations of anti-Kerry bias among the media, and pointed rehashes of Bush’s questionable military record. Readers will find lots of anodyne boilerplate that almost seems (and sometimes is) scripted by the Kerry organization, but little objective insight into the candidate or the nitty-gritty elements of campaigning.
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