Anything for a Vote

Hard to believe how long there hs been such attacks on the people running for elections. It is not a new thing. Some are worse than others but lots of interesting information.

Presidential elections are truly an American form of entertainment. Sure, the content is meant to be serious and the stakes are high, but you can’t help but laugh over some of the antics and shenanigans that have occurred. Joseph Cummins examines at our election process and captures both the seriousness and humor involved.

=== The Good Stuff ===

* Each election is summarized in a few pages. Obviously, in a book of this length, there are not going to be detailed discussions of every factor in every election. But Cummins is able to capture the essence of most of the elections, along with a brief description of the candidates.

* The book does make me feel a little better about current politics and candidates. While the technology is certainly different, today’s 24/7 partisan news channels have nothing on the pamphleteers, rumormongers and scoundrels of earlier elections. Literally, nothing seemed to be off-limits, and truth had nothing to do with the accusations. If anything, today’s ranting and raving is almost calmer and more civilized.

* Cummins rewards his readers with some chuckle-out-loud humor. In 1844, riverboats travelled the Mississippi, with party hacks stopping in every town along the way and voting. Franklin Pierce used his friend Nathaniel Hawthorne to write his press copy, which the author compares to having Franz Kafka managing your PR. FDR relied on silent films of his campaign speeches, and was not above babbling out nonsense for the cameras.

* There was also a serious side to the book, and this seemed to get better with more recent elections. Cummins reminds the reader of the famous LBJ “Daisy” commercial (easily found online) which took 30 seconds to destroy Barry Goldwater. He discusses the ease with which Nixon marginalized McGovern, essentially using the standard arsenal of political dirty tricks to turn the Senator into a political outcast.

=== The Not-So-Good Stuff ===

* Despite the author’s best efforts, some of this stuff can get a little dry, especially in early US elections where the candidates are their issues are unfamiliar to modern readers. Also, some items which were probably laugh-out-loud funny in 1815 sort of lose their edge in 2015.

* The book is fast-paced, which I normally like. In this case, however, I had to consciously force myself to slow down in between chapters, otherwise the facts, anecdotes and candidates all merged together.

=== Summary ===

I am a bit of a “political junkie”, and mostly enjoyed the book. The latter elections, from about FDR onwards, were much more interesting to me than the earlier ones, and Cummins does emphasize these. A strong background in US history will help put the events in the book into context and increase your enjoyment, although the book mostly stands on its own.