Convention
Richard Reeves, author of the widely praised A Ford Not a Lincoln, has produced a startling off-camera, behind-the-scenes account of the 1976 Democratic National Convention, the Convention that gave America its new president, Jimmy Carter.
A witty and marvellously constructed mosaic, Convention has a rare immediacy, presenting American society at its most raw yet most self-conscious. With the use of a team of reporters to cover the participants not only during but also for the months preceding the Convention, the scene is built up. A cast of politicians and statesmen, newsmen and money-men, cops and hookers, hangers-on and hustlers provide both drama and farce. Deals are made and unmade, threats are hurled and enacted and careers, even lives, are made and broken.
From the much publicised 'youngest delegate' to the manager of the telephone company or the school teacher turned hooker for the week, every character in Convention illuminates a facet of America, its society and its politics. A fascinating account of the erratic route to supreme power, orchestrated by one of America's most perceptive political writers.
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Who is Prepared to be President? Nobody
DENVER — Is Barack Obama prepared to be president? No. Neither is John McCain.
Column Archive
A Vote for Elitism
NEW YORK — If you care about the United States and care about swimming — I happen to care about both — who do you want representing you, Michael Phelps or "one of us"?
Broke and Broken in America
SAG HARBOR, N.Y. — Coming home after working abroad for a couple of months means looking at mountains — of mail. But a lot of it is from banks offering credit cards and from politicians offering salvation, both for a price. You can throw that stuff out without opening any of it.
McCain and Obama: Different Kinds of Men
PARIS — In comments that will be little noted nor long remembered, Barack Obama and John McCain each talked recently about what it was like running for president — and, thus, about what kind of president each would be.
Obama Has Landed Safely
PARIS — This was one of four Obama headlines last Friday in Le Figaro, the conservative newspaper whose favorite conservative is President Nicolas Sarkozy:
"Sarkozy: 'Obama? C'est mon copain!" ('Obama? He's my buddy!")
Mr. Obama Visits the World
PARIS — "Alors," said a gendarme watching President John F. Kennedy step off Air Force One at Orly Airport on May 31, 1961, "he's a real all-American boy, that one."
The Tergiversation of Barack Obama
PARIS — A friend of mine, Don Singleton, a talented writer of impeccable liberal soul, sent me a note last Tuesday — if e-mail can be called a "note" — saying this:
The Year of Living Patriotically
For me at least, celebrating the Fourth of July abroad has always been a special thrill. Whatever your political views and opinions of our leaders of the moment, you feel a physical and vibrant tie to the land of your birth, to the ideas that shaped your own brand of patriotism, your inescapable, prideful Americanism, your bond to other Americans who find themselves in Paris or Stockholm or Peshawar, places I have been on my nation's birthday.
Welcome to Britain's Brave New World
LONDON — A prominent, aggressive and ambitious Conservative politician here, David Davis, recently resigned his seat in Parliament to protest a House of Commons vote extending the time a citizen can be held in jail without charges from 28 to 42 days. A national newspaper poll says 57 percent of respondents support his crusade, but they are almost certainly not telling the truth about that.
Which Side Are You On?
PARIS — Newspapers around the world have reprinted and focused on a story that appeared June 8 in The Observer in London about deep-seated racism in rural America. The headline:
"Democrats in Rural Strongholds Refuse to Give Backing to Obama."
They Love Obama, But They Can't Vote
PARIS — This was a nice place to be when Barack Obama finally nailed down the Democratic nomination for president. I happened to be speaking at the American Library in Paris last Wednesday evening, when someone asked whether I thought Obama's ascension would really change the world's view of the United States.
No Country for Old Governing
NEW YORK — I'm surprised that anyone is surprised that someone who was around President George W. Bush has finally said what has been obvious for years: The 43rd president is an ignorant, stubborn fellow isolated by a bodyguard of lies and liars.
The True Shame of The Iraq War
WASHINGTON — This is what I thought was the American social contract when I was growing up in the land of the free and the home of the brave: You could work your way through college, and if you got a decent job, you could buy a house within a few years.
Republicans Feel Heat of Burning Bush
WASHINGTON — "The Change You Deserve" may sound like scrambled Obama, but it was, in fact, considered as this election-year slogan of the National Republican Congressional Committee. It was rejected when someone noticed that it was also the slogan of a prescription drug called Effexor.
Whatever They Say, It's The Money!
WASHINGTON — When they say, "It's not the money ..." — it's the money!
After all is said and almost done, the numbers that are dragging Hillary Clinton to the end of her campaign are not delegate counts but dollar amounts. She is already more than $20 million in debt, and her campaign is costing something like $1 million a day.
Mc Cain, JFK, and the Health of Presidents
NEW YORK — A lot of smart people have spent a lot of time trying to figure out how and why President John F. Kennedy seemed to evolve from an indecisive fool in launching the Bay of Pigs invasion of April 1961 into the cool and calm commander defusing the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962.
It's Race, Stupid!
LOS ANGELES — Face it: "Electability" is just another way of saying Barack Obama is black. The overuse of the word right now is a way of assuring voters, Democrat and Republican, that if they do not want or could not abide a black president, they are not alone.
Enough Already With The Fake Debates
LOS ANGELES — This campaign is SO over. It is hard to imagine a debate worse than the Clinton-Obama stand-up on Wednesday night in Philadelphia. In case you missed them between what seemed like a hundred commercials, Sen. Hillary Clinton, the shorter white one, and Sen. Barack Obama, the taller black one, answered (or endured) a road-show production of "Dumb and Dumber," starring Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos.