The Quest for the Presidency, 1988

During Ron Paul's pursuit for the White House in 2008, many people attempted to make parallels to his grassroots campaign and that of Ross Perot's. Since I was in middle school during the 1992 election and since there were no other books that I could find that emphasized Perot's 1992 campaign, I decided to read "Quest For the Presidency, 1992". First off, as every reviewer has noted, this book really is for the political junky. The book details the primaries of both parties as well as the 1992 Presidential Election. The book gives you significant insight into each of the three campaigns as well as the Tsongas, Buchanan and Brown bids to win their parties' nomination. What it doesn't do is really examine the actual candidates previous to their campaigns. However, the book takes on a narrative feel and makes the political process much more entertaining than I would have anticipated. I was surprised to find out that Perot didn't really cost the election for Bush (as many Republicans have maintained), but instead made the results much more respectable for Bush. The author's painted the Perot campaign as simply a revolt against the established political parties and portrayed Perot as someone who outlined problems without giving solutions, something I was surprised to find out. The authors' characterization of Clinton and Bush were not much better. Clinton is portrayed as a un-trust worthy politician from a suffering state and Bush is shown as a disinterested, out-of-touch, career politician that never had a plan and could never reach the general public. (Given these two characterizations, its no wonder Perot had so much success.) All in all, if you are looking for a detailed account of the 1992 election, I can't imagine a more thorough book is out there on the subject. If you are looking for more of a background on Ross Perot, this book only gives a small glimpse into the man and primarily focuses on his efforts within this campaign.

Now, I'm not going to deny that I'm a political junkie, and have re-read Teddy White's books on the Making of the President several times, but this is actually, to my mind, a superior book. It's certainly written in a much more interesting and accessible manner. The most interesting sections of the book, to me, were those that dealt with Ross Perot. I was one of the many who, at the time, was infatuated with the idea of the Saviour from Texas. Unfortunately, the very things that made him so interesting to so many people also held the seeds of his demise in 92. Surprisingly, to me at least, one person who seems to come out of the book surprisingly well, is Dan Quayle. While not a genius, he is shown in a much better light than you would have expected given the brutal press coverage he received from 1988 on. All in all, I would heartily recommend this book to anybody who has an interest in the way we chose our Presidents, and what we put them through on the road to the White House. Howard

I found this book to be extremely interesting and full of insight about the candidates and their campaigns. It also effectively represents the overall mood of the campaign and the issues facing the US at the time. Fascinating for anyone who is interested in presidential elections, and politics generally.

It seems unnecessary to point out that this book is only for the true political junkie, since it's unlikely that anyone else would pick up a 700-page book with Clinton, Bush, and Perot on the cover in the first place. But for diehard politicos like myself, this book is a terrific account of the '92 campaign. The lengthy passages on political strategy may be trying for some, but the behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of the three major campaigns (not to mention those of Jerry Brown, Pat Buchannan, et al) are fantastic.