Smash Mouth: Two Years In The Gutter With Al Gore And George W. Bush -- Notes From The 2000 Campaign Trail - Hardcover

Milbank, Dana

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0465045901 ISBN 13: 9780465045907

Publisher: Basic Books, 2001

Synopsis

Contrary to most media reports, negative campaigning is actually in decline, but our political system is no better off for it. Or so believes Washington Post political writer Dana Milbank, whose campaign book Smashmouth provides a witty yet ultimately very serious look at the sense and senselessness that occurred during the 2000 presidential campaign. What matters is not whether a campaign claim is positive or negative, but whether the claim is relevant," writes Milbank. "The press should police outright falsehoods, of course, but otherwise let the candidates fight it out." Traveling by bus, plane and motorcade with the candidates, Milbank provides an indelible behind-the-scenes look at the brutal skirmishes that made up this century's first presidential campaign.

About this title

About the Author

Dana Milbank is a staff political writer for the Style section of the Washington Post, for which he covers the presidential campaign. He appears regularly as a guest commentator on Andrea Mitchell's show on MSNBC and other programs. He was previously senior editor at the New Republic, where he was the magazine's White House correspondent, and before that a staff writer at the Wall Street Journal. A graduate of Yale University, Milbank lives in Washington, D.C.

Reviews

To its credit, this hilarious and wise behind-the-scenes look at the just-concluded U.S. presidential campaign shows that reporters don't have to take themselves too seriously to educate. Covering everything from practical jokes (most of which involve food) to the candidates' personal idiosyncrasies (such as Senator John McCain's curious assortment of lucky charms, including an imaginary reptile named Spring Hill Lizard), Milbank, staff writer at the Washington Post, takes an irreverent tour through the past two years on the road with the candidates. Of course the two major candidates--Al Gore and George W. Bush--are most central to the narrative, but the book doesn't exclude the campaign's now-forgotten candidates. He describes his and others' reactions to an early speech by Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley at Notre Dame: "I am growing sleepy. Sleepy. Fortunately, Father Hesburgh [the university's president emeritus] snores again, breaking the spell." Milbank also writes about such short-lived candidates as Bob Smith and Orrin Hatch, who quipped at one campaign event, "I'm starting to get the word out. My wife said just this morning, `I hear you're running for president.'" For all its humor, the book also manages to drive home some serious points, such as the value of tough campaigning--though, he notes, "There's a huge difference between purposeful comparisons and frivolous attacks"--to which the title refers. The difficulty of running a successful campaign comes through clearly. Early on, Milbank presciently wrote about Vice President Gore: "He's running a campaign as a centrist, and there just aren't many raging moderates out there."

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Slightly irreverent, highly informative, crisply written, and at times uproariously funny, this new work from Milbank, senior editor of the left-of-center New Republic magazine, offers a valuable chronicle of the 2000 presidential primary campaign and a celebration of "the virtues of good, solid, in-the-gutter campaigning"-also called "smashmouth" politics. He also takes the reader on a behind-the-scenes tour of the ups and many downs of the life and politics on the primary campaign circuit. While pointing out that candidates Bush and Gore were able to shake of pesky primary challengers McCain and Bradley, respectively, by going on the attack, Milbank is not as alarmed by negative campaigning as one might anticipate. On the whole, he sees tough campaigns as a good test of candidates' mettle. This book is an important and useful contribution to our understanding of the good, the bad, and the ugly of modern presidential elections.
Michael A.Genovese, Loyola Marymount, Univ., Los Angeles
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0465045901
• ISBN 13: 9780465045907
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416