No Way to Pick a President

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Grand Central Publishing, Dec 15, 2000 - Political Science - 322 pages
Combining unparalleled knowledge about presidential politics with scintillating analysis on what's wrong with the way American presidents are chosen, No Way to Pick a President shows us, in memorable and dramatic detail, how professional mercenaries—with little party loyalty and diminished political principles, driven by skewed priorities and an insatiable need for money—are corrupting American public life.

Jules Witcover has covered every election since 1952. According to his analysis, never before in history has so much money poured into a presidential campaign as flowed into the election of 2000. 

In this lively, story-filled account, Witcover examines the many ways in which politicians themselves have condoned or encouraged these developments and how they are responding to the new demands of a media-driven, money-conscious age. He assesses the effects of campaign funds, both "soft" and "hard," and of a press corps that practices invasive, "gotcha" journalism.

At the same time, Witcover shows us how television dramatically, even destructively, distorts the election process, discouraging voter participation and dissuading some of our most promising public figures from seeking higher office.
 

Contents

Preface
Then and
Me for President
The Era of the Hired
Television Raises the Stakes 4 Main Street to Madison Avenue
Sour Mothers Milk
Anything Goes
The 800Pound Gorilla
Watchdogs and Lapdogs
A Process Gone Berserk 10 Coronations Not Conventions 11 Rolling the Dice
The Grand Facade
Moments of Truth
An Accident Waiting to Happen 15 Whither the Parties? 16 Time for an Overhaul Bibliography
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About the author (2000)

Jules Witcover is the author of many books, including The Year the Dream Died: Revisiting 1968 in America and The Resurrection of Richard Nixon. A longtime political reporter and syndicated columnist, formerly based at the Baltimore Sun, he lives in Washington, D.C.

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