The Way to Win

Mark Halperin and John Harris put together The Way to Win, their guide to the strategies necessary to win the White House in 2008. The book focuses on the setbacks and successes of the presidential campaigns of Bush 43 run by Karl Rove and Clinton 42 while drawing in lessons from the losses of Bush 41, Gore, and Kerry. The three most important strategies are to be organized, proactive, and responsive. Rove took advantage of advances in information technology to communicate faster and more directly with colleagues in the campaign and with voters and volunteers in the rest of the country. He also planned far in advance of issues, and prepared to deal with potential opposition effectively. Halperin and Harris then apply these lessons to analyze Hillary Clinton's 2008 prospects and offer suggestions about issues that Senator Clinton will have to watch out for. Already though, Clinton appears to be following the three tenets. The main downside of the book is that the analysis can be overshadowed by the authors constant complaining about what they label and repeatedly refer to as the "Freak Show", the "new media" of talk radio, bloggers, and other extremist sources. The complaints get old quickly and don't really add much to the book.