TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/100890/1008471.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 5.7 KB | 117 lines

                                                                                BOOKS, Page 80

Doing It on the Road


By MICHAEL DUFFY

PLEDGING ALLEGIANCE by Sidney Blumenthal HarperCollins; 386
pages; $22.95

ROAD SHOW by Roger Simon Farrar, Straus & Giroux; 356 pages;
$19.95

SEE HOW THEY RUN by Paul Taylor Knopf; 305 pages; $22.95


    Given a choice between submitting to root-canal work and
reading a book about the 1988 presidential campaign, many people
might opt for the former. Who, after all, truly yearns to review
the speeches of Jack Kemp? To trace once more the pitiful
downfall of Gary Hart? To recall the days when George Bush acted
more like Jack the Ripper than Mr. Kind-and-Gentle? Or to relive
the moment when Michael Dukakis booted the question about a
hypothetical rape of his wife Kitty and kissed his chances
goodbye?

    This sort of self-torture might appeal to political junkies
or Democrats thinking about taking on Bush in 1992. But these
folks can be counted on one hand. With his stratospheric
approval ratings, Bush has yet to encounter a Democrat who will
challenge him for the White House. If he avoids a war in the
Persian Gulf, or wins one, he may be unstoppable. If he fails
and the economy goes south, who would want the job?

    Besides, Democrats are failures at presidential politics.
So conclude three new books about the 1988 campaign. The
authors, veteran political observers all, agree that Bush won
because he and his handlers more ably manipulated the symbols
of patriotism and the emotions of voters than did their
Democratic rivals. Bush pretended to be someone other than
himself and won; Dukakis refused to pretend and lost. Which is
nobler? All three authors ponder this, but Paul Taylor does it
most eloquently: "Faced with a choice between the illusion of
Bush and the unvarnished reality of Dukakis, [the voters] knew
what they wanted. How odd: a process designed to unmask the
candidates wound up electing a masked man."

    A political reporter for the Washington Post, Taylor earned
a footnote in political lore when he asked Hart, "Have you ever
committed adultery?" It was a question many believe transformed
presidential politics, and for the worse. But Taylor argues in
See How They Run that Hart, because of his reckless behavior and
his challenge to reporters to "follow me," was a special case.
Hart "took too literally the invitation in the old Beatles song:
Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" Adds Taylor: "Do, if you like.
Just don't expect the rest of us not to watch."

    Taylor has written an unexpectedly personal book: he
confesses to liking Hart, to overestimating the importance of
Mario Cuomo in the Democratic sweepstakes and to being moved by
Jesse Jackson. Taylor is so disturbed by the 50.16% turnout rate
in the general election that he has given some thought to fixing
the problem. His proposed solution -- giving each nominee five
minutes of free television time on alternate nights during the
campaign's final days -- is worth trying, but it may only prompt
voters to reach for their VCRs.

    While Taylor is thoughtful, Sidney Blumenthal sometimes
lapses into being ponderous. A former Washington Post reporter
now at the New Republic, Blumenthal argues that the two
candidates erred in running old-fashioned campaigns better
suited to the days of the cold war than to the new world order.
This doesn't seem surprising; nobody knew then, nor fully knows
now, how the revolution of 1989 will end.

    Blumenthal looks at events through a catchy, pop-culture
prism: Dukakis is the personification of "safe sex"; Jackson is
"the Cat in the Hat." The author is best at describing
intractable topics, such as the complex origins of Bush's
foreign policy. But when politics intrudes, he sometimes seems
to miss the point. Blumenthal is still at pains to explain
Hart's "philosophy" -- something that in the public mind boiled
down to little more than unsafe sex -- and he makes no attempt
to explain the self-destructive impulses involved in the Donna
Rice affair. Similarly, Blumenthal accuses the Dukakis campaign
of "intellectual" failures, though the Democratic nominee's
mistakes mainly involved political, symbolic and emotional
lapses.

    If Pledging Allegiance takes the election too seriously,
Road Show doesn't take it seriously at all. Roger Simon's work
is campaign as comic relief, the most fun you can have with a
political book. A columnist for the Baltimore Sun, Simon zigged
where other reporters zagged, going to places and shadowing
sources others ignored. He has an obvious feel for people and
a way of making them talk. Simon's biggest coup is a chat with
a former Hart paramour, described as a moderately attractive,
47-year-old divorcee. A patient, ardent suitor, Hart planned
intimate dinners and romantic field trips to such venues as the
Lincoln Memorial. In romance as well as politics, Hart seems
like an escapee from Twin Peaks: once, he headed for the shower
and handed the woman a biography of Thomas Jefferson. "Skim
this," he told her. "We'll discuss it when I get out." When
Hart finally got beyond talking, his interest quickly flagged.
After a single night with the woman he bolted, never to see her
again. Lucky woman.

    All three books are tilted toward Democratic candidates.
Perhaps this is natural: 1988 was the Democrats' race to lose,
and they managed it very nicely. Nonetheless, the authors devote
too little ink to Republicans, who have won every presidential
election save one since 1968. If reporters spent as much time
on (more successful) Republicans as they do their (more
entertaining) rivals, the Democrats might someday get the hang
of presidential politics. Someday.