What It Takes by Richard Ben Cramer

About six weeks ago the good folks at Amazon ran a special in which this seminal political book was available for the Kindle at some ridiculously low price. Long having had it on my to read list I picked it up.

Much as been written about this book over the years. Following in the tradition of Teddy White's The Making of the President Series, only with much more detail and personal history, Cramer's book has for almost two decades been considered the gold standard of political campaign reporting.

In an odd and sad twist when I had made my way about halfway through the book the author, still a relatively young man at 62, passed away. As the tributes flowed in fast and furious if there was any doubt of the importance of what I was reading it soon disappeared.

The book is quite simply a stunning description of the 1988 political race for the Presidency. Following six candidates, four Democrats and the two Republican frontrunners Kramer tells the story of the race through each campaigns eyes as well as providing a significant biography and personal history of each man.

There is much to take away from the book, much indeed, but if anyone is to take away any one thing it is this. The process by which we choose a President, the amount of power the press has to determine the agenda and in many respects the outcome, is beyond measure and out of control. This my friends was in 1988. Imagine now, almost 25 years later how much worse it would be.

It is interesting to note that upon his death how many reporters and members of the media praised this man who, by my estimation, had a great deal of frustration with the role of the press in the campaign.

Reading this book I was struck by a few incidents and stories. To try to offer a view of the book in any detail is beyond a book review or blog post. The book is over one thousand pages, one suspects that is why the initial reviews upon it's release were not that good, the press is and has become, by and large, lazy. Much easier to criticize a book as long winded and filled with minutiae than read it. Over time however the book took hold, people realized how special it was.

It should become a lesson for would be reporters and would be political candidates, a how not to do it if you will. By looking at our press today one suspects however that while they respect the work the lessons are soon lost in the heat of the moment.

If you do not remember on the Republican side that year it was the sitting Vice President George Bush the first versus Kansas Senator Bob Dole. By the end of the book it is very apparent that Cramer had a strong affinity for both these men and their basic goodness. It is surprising in fact to look back, with the benefit of twenty five years of history to see how these two good men, good public servants, truly did not like each other.

Their back stories could not have been different. Poor in Kansas or rich on the East Coast, yet both their parents raised them right. Both served their country heroically. Bush was shot down as a young pilot, Dole suffered life threatening and life changing injuries. Both were party men through the rise and fall of Nixon, both lost to Reagan in 1980 and both considered 1988 their last chance at the Presidency.


On the Democratic side there were a multitude of candidates but it was a truly cannibalistic affair. It was here that the press was out of control. The frontrunner as the field was set was Gary Hart. Hart who had lost to Mondale in 1984 seemed filled with destiny. Resigning his Senate seat in 1986 so he could concentrate full time on the Presidency Hart ended up run out of the race because of as Cramer puts it " the Karacter issue." The scenes of the press as they set upon Hart are truly disturbing. The pack mentality is something that should make anyone, left or right, uncomfortable. The most disturbing thing in the whole story of Gary Hart is how incredibly talented he was. How he was ready to be President, how he had a plan beyond anything any of the other candidates even thought about. Yet, he lost it all. He made mistakes but the press ruined him. One has to wonder if some of the men that Cramer profiles on the press side ever forgave him for showing their unattractive sides.

Joe Biden, our Vice President was also in that race. Just as he was catching fire Biden blew up over the plagiarism charges. Even though he had credited the British politician Neil Kinnock when using the line in previous speeches Biden did not in one speech and the story took hold. There might never have been a man better suited to be President. As he rose in the polls the squeaky clean campaign of Mike Dukakis leaked tapes of Biden speaking and blew the whistle on the Kinnock story. Biden was at worst sloppy but it was a ridiculous story and if anything the laziness of the press in the destruction of Joe Biden was even worse.

Dukakis is portrayed as just what he was. A highly moral, holier than thou Greek American who had been a highly successful Governor who believed in the process. He was aghast when the Biden leak came back to his staff. One has no doubt believing he did not know, but yet he just cannot come across as likable. In retirement as I wrote he is still the same man, proper and good. Yet there is no doubt that his refusal to be a politician, his inability to relate cost him the Presidency.

I write last about Richard Gephardt because his story is probably the most moving in the book. This man who seemed destined for great things. This man who was the ideal Democrat, the liberal. He lost. And as I wrote recently in my political blog there is no example in modern politics of a man who has sold his soul more worse than Richard Gephardt. Read this book and look at all of Gephardt's issues and core concerns. Then look at who he lobbies for today and what sides he has worked for and against in his career since leaving Congress. It is the worst story you will hear this week, this month, this year, it is bad enough to be a bad politician, what Gephardt has done is akin to the Devil being kicked out of Heaven, He is a political Judas. Disgusting in the extreme.

Carve out some time before the next round of Presidential politics. This book should be read before 2016. Then you will have the knowledge of a race 28 years ago, and see how little has changed. In a sense 1988 was the beginning of the end, any leftover regard for the Presidency, much in decline after Watergate, was gone after Reagan left office, after Hart and Biden were run out of office. Four years later we had Bill Clinton who unlike Hart survived his mistakes but it has never been the same. In today's world there is always chum in the water. Richard Ben Cramer describes when any luster in running for the Presidency was lost for good.