Oh, Waiter! One Order of Crow!: Inside the Strangest Presidential Election Finish in American History - Hardcover

Greenfield, Jeff

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0399147764 ISBN 13: 9780399147760

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2001

Synopsis

Explores Election Night 2000 from the campaign preceeding it to the confusion following it to its final result.

About this title

About the Author

Jeff Greenfield is the CBS News senior political correspondent, and a veteran of CNN and ABC News. A four-time Emmy Award winner, he is the author or coauthor of eleven books including If Kennedy Lived: The First and Second Terms of President John F. Kennedy: An Alternate History and 43*: When Gore Beat Bush—A Political Fable. He lives in New York City.

Reviews

Breezy, witty, urbane, sophisticated and erudite all describe Greenfield's "You Are There"-style chronicle of what it was like to be at the CNN anchor desk election eve 2000. He flawlessly matches laugh-out-loud humor with genuine insight into the factors that shaped the Bush-Gore contest for the presidency and the bitter political trench warfare that was the fight for Florida. Making ample use of satire, skewering members of the working press, legal scholars of the left and right, and most satisfyingly the political establishments of both Republicans and Democrats, Greenfield captures the sublime and the ridiculous of this history-making election, although there is (perhaps necessarily) a heavier helping of the ridiculous. Greenfield takes readers through each of the pivotal moments in the campaign and its aftermath, specifically highlighting the primaries, the conventions, the debates, the recount battles and the court arguments and decisions with a characteristically unpretentious approach that will be familiar to readers who have followed his career as a political commentator for ABC and CNN. And although the touch is light, the analysis is never lightweight. Among the many strengths of the book is the attention it devotes to the primary campaigns of both Bush and Gore, depicting in detail why the internal dynamics of the Republican and Democratic parties respectively made it impossible for either John McCain or Bill Bradley to mount successful challenges. This is a valuable political commentary wrapped in a wonderfully entertaining package.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Anyone who has seen political commentator Jeff Greenfield on CNN or one of his other venues knows that he's the talking head with the sardonic sense of humor. As a former Democratic speechwriter, reporter, and news analyst, Greenfield has been around and has seen it all--except an election like the last one. Calling on both his wit and his experience, he becomes our group leader on a fascinating magical mystery tour of the 2000 election. Books are often billed as "inside looks," but this one actually lives up to the claim. At critical junctures, Greenfield rips off the ubiquitous curtains of superficiality, mendacity, and pomposity that cloaked the players from both parties throughout the campaign. He explains why Bush and Gore annoyed voters to a virtual tie: "a candidate who spoke to us as if English were his second language and a candidate who spoke to us as if English were our second language"; he muses on how the media got it so miserably wrong on election night: "who knew?"; and he reveals why Bush finally won: the Republicans were willing to go to the mat to ensure a Bush victory, and the Democrats weren't willing to do the same for their guy. Greenfield also gives confirmation of something viewers have long suspected. "All of us could save a lot of time and money by not booking any more guests at all on this story. We should just use sock puppets instead. Because it's the same damn argument every night." If you read only one book about the 2000 election, make it this one. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Greenfield's 1995 novel, The People's Choice, centered around a constitutional crisis launched by the president-elect's death. A longtime television political commentator, Greenfield was election-night anchor when CNN twice prematurely called the winner in last year's presidential contest and so became a character in a plot as incredible as his novel's. In this "memoir-on-the-run," Greenfield describes what it was like to preside over the events of that evening (and morning), analyzes the campaigns that brought us to deadlock, and freely offers more general comments along the way about our politics and media. Brisk and funny in style, his analysis of the Bradley, McCain, Bush, and Gore campaigns is the book's best feature. Greenfield's humor, while often sharp, sometimes overreaches, and his insider's look at such things as political operatives and exit polls will mainly interest the political hard core. Even so, this is a good choice for public libraries and for academic collections strong in media and politics. Robert F. Nardini, Chichester, NH
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0399147764
• ISBN 13: 9780399147760
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336