The Choice

 

The Choice – Bob Woodward

I still remember when this book was released.  I was working for an entertainment distributor and one of our tasks was supplying Wal-Mart with their books.  It must have been around July 1996 and the presidential election was still about four months away.  When I first saw this book as I opened up the shipping box, my initial thought was “I don’t get it.”   Why would anyone spend around $20 for a hardback book that seemed to be about the two frontrunners for the presidential race that would be over in four months?  Wouldn’t this book be obsolete once the election was over?  And, like every other presidential election, wasn’t there still a lot of story left to tell about “the choice” that would occur in the months leading up to Election Day?  No, I didn’t get it.

28 years later, I still feel kind of the same way.  I bought this book (heavily discounted of course) mainly because I have recently discovered how much I enjoy the writing of Bob Woodward, and I’m always interested in history; especially of the American variety.  There probably isn’t a better writer of the ins and outs of Washington politics than Bob Woodward.  Still, I maintain that for this book to be complete, it should have been written after the election.  It would have been much more rewarding.  I suppose, though, that book publishers focus more on profits than telling a complete (and sometimes) true story.  My guess is a high-level accountant realized that such a book, featuring a picture of Bill Clinton and Bob Dole meeting in the oval office, might generate some needed revenue to improve the current balance sheet; even with a few months still to go in the contest.

Woodward’s last book was about Bill Clinton’s tumultuous first year in office (“The Agenda”) and in some ways, this book picks up a bit where that one left off.  Two years after Bill Clinton was elected president, the honeymoon he had with the American voters was definitely over, and the acrimonious public showed their sentiments in the 1994 mid-term election with a stinging defeat for many of the Democratic incumbents.  Enter Newt Gingrich and company, and you have to wonder if Bill Clinton regretted his decision to ever run for the highest office in the land.

I would guess that about 70% of this book is devoted to the Republicans deciding who their nominee would be (with the focus on the obvious first choice, Bob Dole) and all of the backroom squabbling going on and clandestine handshakes being conducted.   The other 30% is about Bill Clinton, and how he must now reinvent himself with new messages to regain the trust of a skeptical electorate.

So the book succeeds where it sets out to do so.  Reading this book reminded me a bit of watching a season of the popular television show “The West Wing”.  We see all the wheeling and dealing in the back rooms, the campaign staffs for the candidates and how they always seem to be at odds with each other, and we get a glimpse into candidates who try yet eventually fail in their bids to achieve the top prize.  Throughout all of this, we almost see Bob Dole become the leader “by default”.  He never comes across as terribly appealing, yet he has money and his resume that puts him in the lead.  He often seems a bit confused, lost, and is frequently ill with a cold.  We always see his masses of employees trying to correct every aspect of his behavior and appearance.  It does take a special breed of person to want to put themselves through so much turmoil.   As mentioned earlier, we also get to read about Colin Powel, Steve Jobs, and Phil Gramm among others, as they all compete, or think about competing, for the top spot, yet they can’t compete with Bob Dole’s experience and money.

With Clinton, we read a lot about his inner circle as well, the focus is mainly the newly hired political strategist Dick Morris.  History has shown Morris as to being a somewhat sleazy underhanded character, but I would argue he deserves credit for getting Clinton back in favor in the public eye more than anyone else on the payroll. (Google “triangulation” to get an idea of what Morris’s strategy was.)

What’s really unfortunate, yet not really surprising, is that when we hear all of these strategies behind the scenes, the main sentiment is never “how to we help our citizens?” yet rather “what do we need to do to get elected?”   True, you can’t do the former without accomplishing the latter, but it is very easy to get a tad disgusted when really digesting exactly what is going on during this election, and pretty much every other election.  A good argument can be made that this isn’t really to fault of the candidates, yet the fault of the voters, but let’s not even begin to go there.

The biggest drawback, as I mentioned, is that this book basically “stops” before the story is finished.  Now, I think that at some point, a reissue of this book came out that did tell the remainder of the story.  If so, I would probably recommend that edition since Woodward is a solid writer, and I’m sure he doesn’t disappoint the reader as he conveys the facts.  Still, though, one can’t help but look at this original edition as a tad of a gyp and more of selfish money-grabbing endeavor.