The Presidential Game: The Origins of American Presidential Politics

McCormick shines a light on the dustiest corner of the U.S. Constitution still in effect. It turns out that even the Founding Fathers were as perplexed by the election process as we are. Even with the stopgap measure of the 12th Amendment, the wideopen gaps of the electoral process shaped the rise of the political party system we know today.McCormick prescribes no changes but that's not his intent here. Rather, he bares an overlooked but nonetheless crucial part of our past and how it still affects us today. Those who want to either justify or reform presidential elections can do only worse than to start with his book.

McCormick does more than present a history of U.S. Presidential elections; rather, he analyzes the varying "rules" which defined what he terms the "Presidential Game" over the first century. He argues that the development of political parties, though not specified in the Consitution, became a necessary result of the "game" which developed. An interesting, although sometimes repetitive, text.