It’s safe to say I’ve found another fan:
Need a VP? Greenfield’s book on the 1980 Presidential race, “The Real Campaign: How the Media Missed the Story of the 1980 Election” is still the best book of its kind I’ve ever read, and one of the best books on American politics ever written. (Jpod might want to re-read – or read – it. Among other things it shows how presumptive “front-runners” whose status was based on name-recognition and the enthusiastic support of noisy factions *failed* to win their party’s nominations in 1976 and 1980. Also how ”mavericks” who are vaguely defined and especially attractive to the media are often destroyed by that same media when as soon as they begin to seem to have a serious chance of winning a nomination, as the press starts subjecting them to the kind of serious coverage potential presidents deserve. The pattern he illustrates with John Anderson also largely applies to Ross Perrot and even Howard Dean, and could easily be a peek into future of a John McCain or Rudy Giuliani. His dissection of the Ted Kennedy boomlet (front-runner until there was danger of his winning something, then all the protest voters deserted hiim) is brilliant, as is refusal to join the press heard in dismissing Ronald Reagan as an amiable dunce created by his handlers. 20 years later the press is still missing the real story, covering the meaningless horserace, annointing “mavericks” and then destroying them with the glare of television lights and dismissing bright men who aren’t bright in the way they recognize. “Bring back Jeff!”