A Book to Read - What it Takes

I realise this is going to seem odd, but I am about to advise you to read a 1,000 page long book covering the 1988 Presidential primaries.

While thinking about Joe Biden I reached for one of my favourite political campaign books - Richard Ben Cramer's What it Takes. I remembered that it had a full history of Biden's 1988 effort. And as I leafed through it I recalled again what a great book it was.

Cramer followed all the main candidates - Bush, Dole, Dukakis, Gephardt, Hart and Biden - through the primaries and wrote a fabulous history - detailed, witty and perceptive.

What makes this book worth reading twenty years after the events it covers is not the odd insight into Biden. It is that Cramer was the first to show what life is like inside the bubble. The relationship between the candidate and their myriad advisers (Bob Shrum, or Shrummy as he is called, is particularly memorable) is lovingly chronicled.

It is still hard all these years later to find another book that describes American politics as well as What It Takes. 

Comments

[Richard Young]

So... do tell. What 20 year-old insights into Joe Biden should we apply to the 2008 race?