Analysis of The Candidate by Samuel Popkin - Book Report/Review Example

Analysis of The Candidate by Samuel Popkin Samuel Popkin is a well known political writer and has been part of several political campaigns in the past. He has done numerous researches on presidential campaigns, even including the primaries and written articles, but his book “The Candidate” has just done it all. According to him the duties of any victorious presidential candidate are quite demanding and sometimes nearly impossible to do. The candidate needs to have good experience and be free from a dark past. Has a duty to build his campaign team to work as one without any dictatorship and him being the respectable figure in the team; that is portraying a good image and leadership skills. Should desist from too negative tainting of his opponent; should do this in a likeable and positive manner. He should solidify his base at the same time moving forward. The tactics he uses to win the election are quite unfeasible to duplicate in the next elections. It is obvious that the candidate may not be totally perfect for the next four years. The main issue is how to deal with the shortcomings and if possibly the opponents might make worse blunders than him. Therefore, when it comes to books about politics and campaigns for presidential elections, Samuel Popkin book “The Candidate” is the best choice. Drawing its findings and analysis through some popular presidential runners throughout history, it is just a masterpiece for any political fanatic. Many writers usually focus their text on the recent campaigns, but Popkin has systematically taken has through the past 60years or so of political campaigns. This book is quite entertaining and at the same time informative. Even though Popkin is well known to be a democrat, this book does not focus on partisan politics it takes no sides; it is crafted to give us insights on how politics is played or done. Personally I think that Popkin description of how to win the presidential election is vague, and his much focus is on how easy it is to lose the presidential election. There is actually no noticeable difference for a campaign team that emerges victorious but there is much difference between political campaigns which fail. Some of the campaign teams he examined in the book which lost, that is Hillary Clinton, George H. W. Bush and Al Gore had different shortcomings and probably they were poor campaigners. These revelations by Popkin tend to suggest that we usually vote for the best campaigner and probably not the best person who could have led has well. For instance Hillary was a well established figure in the political arena but due to poor campaign was beaten by Obama who had no much accomplishment. Popkin through his extensive research and analysis of past political campaigns gives us an account of the things needed to emerge victorious in the subsequent campaign. The journey to the White House always involves a lot of well crafted campaigns; these campaign organizers are absolutely geniuses it is an imaginable the effort they put just to ensure they emerge victorious. However, sometimes we ask ourselves the following questions. Why are we not yet perfect after all these past marvelous campaigns? Why cannot we learn from our experiences? Why do we always continue to propagate the past mistakes of our predecessors? The book is quite efficient in describing how major contenders take over the White House (Challengers), how serving presidents retain the office (Incumbents) and how those who succeed them, Vice President ensure their party has power (Successors). Popkin especially focuses on three distinct campaigns. The 1992 jumbled campaign which the incumbent president George H. W. Bush sought reelection. The 2000 election’s which saw Al Gore run and his campaigns were flawed. And also the recent 2008 elections which show how mismanaged the campaign for Hillary Clinton’s nominations were. It also brings out important lessons on teamwork which Reagan Ronald can use to enlighten the candidates of the future on why it is necessary to work as a team. Popkin illuminates various perplexities involved in the campaigns (presidential). He gives an account of the less significant and most significant details; some of the astonishing blunders in campaigns and the somehow expected miscues. He gives us a picture of what takes place inside the political campaigns and the reasons for a candidate to emerge a victor and why the other contender fails. An in depth analysis of Popkin’s book reveals that the first requirements a candidate need to put in place before running for the presidency is to have a vision for the people and running audacity. In order to survive in this arena of political heavyweights, where nobody cares whether you are strong or weak, the campaigns sometimes get messy; presidential hopefuls need to comprehend the vital issues raised by Popkin in this book. For instance looking at the most recent 2012 presidential elections, when we refer to Popkin’s analysis, his findings are quite outstandingly clairvoyant. Obama as the incumbent president tried to put up a strong campaign; however, his campaign team was not short-of blunders. This especially can be revealed through his performance in the first presidential debate. On the other hand, the campaign team for Romney was quite strong; it had a good manager, though somehow their candidate was generally weak. Comparing Romney and Obama, Romney has some weakness which disadvantaged them and Obama snatched the victory (The Oxford University N.P). Looking at the 2008 campaigns during the nominations, Popkin gives us some interesting revelations. We see that Mark Penn who was Hillary Clinton’s campaign strategist was an unstoppable villain. His actions reveal a state of poor judgment. We also see the shortcomings of Clinton by his act of denial until it was very late to make things right. This story is quite fascinating in how it gives us an insight on what happens in these campaigns. It also shows how minor things and lack of prompt action to address any disputes or issues may cause a candidate to lose. It gives an important lesson on future aspirants to know what to address and what to ignore. But in real life ignorance is always a bad choice and can cause someone a lot of damage later on (Popkin 187-300). According to Popkin planning is an essential tool in campaigns. He also reveals how the candidates lack full control of their teams. This candidate’s sometime work with people they even do not know and give them various responsibilities. They have to do with this since it could be impossible for them to perform all the duties and thus obliged to instill their trust on strangers. It is unfortunate that Hillary Clinton was a victim of bad advice. Finally, according to Popkin the candidate who takes a personal initiative to manage his team emerges victorious. He contrasts between Hillary Clinton campaign management strategy and that of Obama. Obama was efficient in actively participating in the campaign team decisions as he moved throughout the country. Also, going back to the 1992 elections and taking a look at the incumbent president campaign, the events are quite intriguing. It is clear that George H. W. Bush had no control of his campaign team, and there was no hope for him to keep it on track. Bush realized that things were not going well, after knowing that his chief of staff, Mr. Sununu John was making backdoor presidential decisions. What surprising is he did nothing about it? He opted for another way out by creating a secret e-mail account which could be out of reach by Sununu. He conducted essential meetings without informing Sununu, however, in one way or another Sununu turned up unexpectedly. Eventually, the implication of Sununu in misuse of limousines of the White House and government planes forced him to quit. Surprisingly the president never dealt with the issue (Popkin 5-250). It is also interesting to note that wives of presidents are more than just the cordial hosts we see. One most intriguing revelation is that the well known and respectable Nancy Reagan made an effort of ensuring that unreliable people were not clinging on his husband. Taking into consideration that her husband is a man of the people; he likes everyone. On the other hand, the magnificent and forceful personality that seems to characterize well Barbara Bush was not anywhere noticeable. She was just unseen in her stay in the White House. She did not avail any substantial noticeable help to her husband. Another intriguing feature in this book is that Popkin tries to dismember a few political clichés that have been existent for a very longtime. For example, the notion that Harry Truman eloquence and good public speaking skills or good campaigner made him win, Popkin disputes this as false. Also that his main contender Thomas E. Dewey lost since he was dull and uninteresting, and lousy is absolutely not true. Instead, Popkin explains that by using incumbency powers’ Truman managed to use mischievous political tactics that made Republicans lose the race to White House. Finally, Popkin concludes that campaigns are a good system. They are like gauge a person’s abilities to manage the office. And those effective managers of these campaigns are mostly likely to be the winners. It is quite literally wise in that throughout this analysis he is not ignorant of the technological changes. In his analysis, he explains that tactics used to win one campaign actually are not the ones that will be used to win the next. These campaigners need to be creative and incorporate the changing technology. This book has been well divided into distinctive parts, and readers can be choosy on what they like most. For instance, those who like politics too much will be more drawn to the chapters describing the tactics used by challengers, incumbents and successors in their campaigns. The ordinary reader could be interested in the chronology of history from one president to another and how the events unfold. I think Popkin’s Book “The Candidate” could be essential in shaping the public’s minds about politics. If everyone could be able to read it, the way we vote would drastically change. A lot is there to learn about politics and complexities involved in these campaigns and this book helps appreciate these facts. One shortcoming I could like to reiterate the subtitle of this book “What It Takes to Win - and Hold – the White House.” Popkin generally does not give a clear account of how to do this. There is no practical steps one may decide to follow, but what he offers is mostly things that make one lose. Despite this, it is an excellent book for anyone interested in politics. Works Cited Popkin, S.L. The Candidate: What It Takes to Win - and Hold - the White House. Oxford University Press, 2012, 1-350. Print The Oxford University, Press. The Candidate. 2013, N.P. Web. Retrieved on 27/02/2014 from . Read More