Prologue
Chapter 1: Campaign Juggling
Chapter 2: Planning for Chaos
Chapter 3: Challengers: Senator Clinton in 2008
Chapter 4: Challenger Case Study: The Search for the Experienced
Virgin
Chapter 5: Incumbents: Regicide or More of the Same
Chapter 6: Incumbent Case Study: President Bush in 1992
Chapter 7: Seven Successor-Lapdogs or Leaders
Chapter 8: Successor Case Study: Vice-President Al Gore in 2000
Chapter 9: Teams that Work
Chapter 10: Conclusion: Is This Any Way to Pick a President?
Bibliography
Notes
Index
Samuel L. Popkin is Professor of Political Science at the
University of California, San Diego. He has also been a consulting
analyst in presidential campaigns, serving as consultant to the
Clinton campaign on polling and strategy, to the CBS News election
units from 1983 to 1990 on survey design and analysis, and more
recently to the Gore campaign. He has also served as consultant to
political parties in Canada and Europe and to the Departments
of
State and Defense. His most recent book is The Reasoning Voter:
Communication and Persuasion in Presidential Campaigns; earlier he
co-authored Issues and Strategies: The Computer Simulation of
Presidential Campaigns;
and he co-edited Chief of Staff: Twenty-Five Years of Managing the
Presidency.
"Sam Popkin is a leading political scientist and someone who has
worked inside presidential campaigns over many years. He brings the
discipline of an academic and the eye of a practitioner to the
question of what makes some candidates successful and other not."
--Dan Balz, The Washington Post
"No one I know has more closely studied the link between the minds
of voters and the machinery of Presidential campaigns than Sam
Popkin. He's a scholar who has worked in War Rooms. A strategist
who knows his history. In The Candidate, Professor Popkin teaches
us what he's learned--the surprising secrets that separate winning
campaigns from the ones that crash and burn." --George
Stephanopoulos, Anchor and Chief Political Correspondent, ABC
News
"The Candidate offers a deep dive into Presidential politics.
Popkin tells us why so many 'inevitable' candidates fail, why
incumbency can be as much a burden as a blessing, and why the
presidency is often won or lost behind the scenes. Informed,
opinionated, and smart. Must reading in 2012 and beyond." --Richard
Thaler, co-author of Nudge
"Samuel L. Popkin has written a ground-breaking book, making use of
his skills as a political scientist, his extensive experience in
campaigns, and his prodigious archival research to produce a
gold-plated analysis of presidential elections. His book, The
Candidate: What it Takes to Win--and Hold--the White House, is not
just a crucial document for campaign strategists, political
reporters, and academics; it is a great read for members of the
general
public who will find it enlightening, refreshing, and a new source
for understanding the world of high-powered politics." --Thomas
Edsall, author of The Age of Austerity
"Popkin is that rare academic who can write a fast-moving, punchy
book that rescues political science from spreadsheets and
algorithms and thereby makes it interesting and captivating. The
Candidate is argumentative, opinionated, provocative and a great
read for any political junkie or activist."--Karl Rove, former
Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff to President George W.
Bush
"[A] valuable aspect of The Candidate is [Popkin's] insistence that
what matters above all else is the team, and especially the
immediate supervisor of that team, the chief of
staff...convincing." --Michael Tomasky, The New York Review of
Books
"The Candidate is an insider romp through American politics -- and
a guide to the presidential elections of 2012." -- The Globe and
Mail
"All political junkies should have this book next to the TV remote
so they can watch Popkin's ideas play out in real time during this
campaign season and the general election. Too bad for the GOP
candidates that they can't read this book until May. Highly
recommended." --Library Journal
"Sam Popkin is a rare breed-an accomplished academic and
practitioner, who understands politics from outside and in. In The
Candidate, Popkin shares his keen insights into campaigns, why they
win, and why they don't. It's must reading for any student of the
game."--David Axelrod
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