|
Executive
Times |
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
2007
Book Reviews |
|||
The Argument: Billionaires, Bloggers,
and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics by Matt Bai |
||||
Rating: |
** |
|||
|
(Mildly
Recommended) |
|||
|
|
|||
|
Click on title or picture to buy from amazon.com |
|||
|
|
|||
|
Alliances New York Times
reporter Matt Bai has written an interesting new book, The
Argument, that explores the search by many
Democratic Party operatives for what the title reference: a single rallying
cry that will lead to victory. Herding cats would be easier. One would expect
that many of the billionaires described in this book would be able to “buy”
such an argument, but there’s great divisiveness. The bloggers have plenty of
voice, and no unity. Readers who expect the Democrats to win the White House
in 2008 will come away from this book with doubts, and readers who expect the
Democrats to continue to founder may come away with an increased appreciation
of the amount of money and attention being devoted to their success. Here’s
an excerpt, from the beginning of Chapter 7, “The
Argument,” pp. 153-155: While
the bloggers were busy storming the party's "We're going to be in
places where the Democratic Party hasn't been in twenty-five years,"
Dean liked to say. "If you don't show up in sixty percent of the
country, you don't win, and that's not going to happen anymore." Which
is why, at the end of May 2006, Dean decided to show up in Alaska, a state so
remote that if you accidentally pass it, you end up in Russia. Dean was the
first national Democrat in several years to set foot in the state, which
hadn't sent a Democrat to the House or Senate in more than thirty years. When I heard about the trip, I
invited myself along. I had learned a few things about traveling with Dean,
which I had done many times since we first met in 2003. The first was that
you never brought a bag that had to be checked at the airport, because Dean
didn't wait for baggage; he brought only the suit he was wearing and a few
L.L.Bean wash-and-wear shirts, since he thought $1.25 was way too much
to pay for dry
cleaning. Second, it was best to show up with something
chocolate—cookies or brownies, maybe—because this tended to lighten Dean's
mood and help him forget that he was enduring your presence. "Don't
mind if I do," he would say when offered
sweets, wiggling his fingers in the air. It was pouring when we landed
in As we drove through the rain,
wipers swishing furiously, Dean asked Teeters how many organizers the state
party now had on the ground. “It’s just me,” Teeters said, almost apologetically.
The DNC, he said, had also hired a press aide for the state party. Dean
grunted and stared out the window at the soggy landscape. Then he suddenly
decided that one organizer simply wasn't enough. "In most states, we
have three or four," he said, thinking out loud. "Seems like you
should really have more. We should be able to find that money in the
budget." Teeters
nodded. I could imagine what he was thinking. After five minutes in a car
with Howard Dean, during which he had probably been instructed not to say
very much, he had somehow talked the chairman into spending even more money
in That night, after meeting with
Dean at the sad little storefront office that housed the state party,
Alaska's party chairman announced to four hundred Democrats assembled at a
fund-raiser that Dean had just decided to spring for another organizer in
Alaska. The crowd erupted in applause. I could see Dean's personal aide,
Chris Canning, standing to the side of the room, gently roll his eyes and
begin typing a text message into his mobile phone. He was telling some poor
staffer back in The
alliances that Bai describes in The Argument are interesting in
and of themselves. The result of this interesting book is an enjoyable
excursion for readers into the world of politics by those who play hard to
win power and influence. Steve
Hopkins, October 25, 2007 |
|||
|
|
|||
Go to
Executive Times Archives |
||||
|
||||
|
|
|||
|
2007 Hopkins and Company, LLC The recommendation rating for this book appeared in the November
2007 issue
of Executive Times URL for this review: http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/Books/The
Argument.htm For Reprint Permission, Contact: Hopkins & Company, LLC • E-mail: books@hopkinsandcompany.com |
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||