How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative

If you love inside politics you'll love this book! Look beyond party politics...this is not a pro-Democratic or pro-Republican book...this book condemns the whole system and exposes it for what it is. Extremely funny and oftentimes tragic, Raymond's story is brutally honest. He is the rare insider to come clean and explain in the plain light of day what really goes on behind the scenes no matter what political party or campaign you support. A must-read for political junkies!

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the upcoming presidential election. It's very funny, candid, and insightful -- a zippy, fascinating read. (For a book about politics, it's a real page-turner!) American voters are manipulated by political campaign strategists during every, single election. We always fall for their dirty tricks. Read the book and learn how it's done. Afterwards you'll question every piece of "news" from every politician's campaign about a rival candidate. Refreshingly, the author takes full responsibility for the things he did to slime opponents when he was in the dirty tricks business. He did his jail time and doesn't whine about it.

This is a colorful, frank, and profane memoir of seamy politics by a pro whose Republican pals threw him under the bus when one of their dirty tricks (and not the dirtiest one in his book) started making some headlines. If you want to see what the top of the Republican world looks like to an RNC hotshot (and Raymond was picked by the RNC to teach their up-and-comers just how to do business) this book is for you. "If you don't know who the sucker in the room is, it's you." See Karl Rove in a glass cage orchestrating his minions "like Darth Vader in his life-support pod." Hear GWB make the same joke again and again with staffers (and no one else) laughing each time. Observe the surprisingly seamy tactics of DCI Group's Tony Feather and Tom Synhorst. Allen Raymond spent fifteen years on the Karl Rove side of Republican politics. This book details many stunts more colorful than phone-jamming. Deceptive robocalls to Democrats from "scary black men" or "actors putting on thick Spanish accents" worked wonders at keeping them home on Election Day. Swapping soft money for hard--funneling GOP dollars to "spoiler" Democratic candidates--engineering repeat contributions from donors who had already given their legal limit--Raymond names names and shows how each trick works. During one Superbowl, Allen masterminded a midgame annoying phone call to--maybe you just have to read the book to understand that one. Probably the biggest reason that GOP insiders want you not to read this book is that it showcases the in-crowd's complete contempt for their supporters -- "the Jesus-loves-guns crowd" -- "the knuckle-draggers, the gunnies, and the committed ideologue nuts." "The mouth-breathers who who decide GOP primaries might allow people to steal their money and send their children to impossible wars but they'll cut no such slack for baby-killers." Chances are "mouth-breathers" won't read Raymond's book. I hope you will. The Senate Judiciary Committee can't seem to get off the dime to release the much-needed Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act so it can get voted on. Maybe this book will help more people see the light about why it is needed.

This book confirms everything you suspected was true about how politicians get elected in the country. It has the tone of a P.J. O'Rourke novel, hilarious and all too real at the same time because it happened. I laughed all the way through it, and then watched Hardball with Chris Matthews in a whole new light once I was done. One reviewer asked "who has ever heard of this guy?" and that is exactly the point! These nameless, faceless operatives and consultants are legion in both political parties and they are the ones who actually decide what candidates say, do, wear, etc. Raymond was a very high level player at the Republican National Committee, chief of staff to a republican congressman and ran numerous campaigns at the national level, he saw it all from the inside and it's not pretty. A great read, I highly recommend.

If you loved the book or movie THANK YOU FOR SMOKING, you'll love this book. I'm a political junky, but i've shared the book with someone who isn't, and he agreed with me this is laugh-out loud funny. For those who read TalkingPoints memo or DailyKos et al, you'll remember this story about New Hampshire phone jamming in the 2004. This book gives you real behind-the-scenes stuff on the political trenches from backwater NJ campaigns to the RNC and the major leagues: presidential politics. Makes you wonder: what's happening in 2008?