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This is a book by Amy Chozick, New York Times reporter who covered Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign. She also covered the 2008 primaries for the Wall Street Journal. It's 375 pages, and continuing a trend I find troubling, lacks any index.
There is virtually nothing about issues in the book. Presumably she decided to leave that to others. It's all campaign gossip and drama. The best thing I got out of the book was the vapidity and vacuousness of campaigns. I can't tell if the writer intended to convey this, but if so she does a good job of it.
In one incident, she recounts waiting with Bill and Chelsea Clinton at Entebbe International Airport for a helicopter that was bringing in Bill Clinton Kalgani, a 14 year old boy who had been named after Clinton when he visited in 1998.
Quote:
A photograph hangs in the Clintons' Chappaqua home. Clinton is holding the newborn as Hillary, in a wide-rimmed Out of Africa hat, looks on. "He was born the day before we got there," Clinton told me over the hum of the helicopter.(p. 34)
The copter arrived, and Bill, Bill, and Chelsea visited for a while. President Clinton said that he'd pay the boy's tuition. After they got on their private jet to leave, President Clinton told Amy that a Senegalese farmer had named a goat after him as well. "We're going to fly the goat in next," President Clinton remarks.
Another striking incident recounted comes from Amy's coverage of the John Kerry campaign in 2003 in Iowa. Amy writes: "The wrong culinary move can spell calamity." Press Secretary Robert Gibbs:
Quote:
spotted Kerry [I assume via TV] ordering a strawberry smoothie. He sent an all-staff email out to the campaign: "SOMEBODY GET A [expletive deleted]ING CORN DOG IN HIS HAND NOW."(p. 118)
Also unfortunately, there is very little insight into Hillary as a person despite 10 years of covering her. Contrary to what conservatives might think, she always had a prickly and aloof relationship with the press, going back to her First Lady days in the 1990s. During the 2016 campaign, she would usually fly in a separate plane with her top aides, despite the extra expense to the campaign.
Another funny note from the book. Writer Amy Chozick lives in NYC and had a Polish housekeeper named Wanda. Wanda also happened to work for Eric and Donald Trump Jr.
Quote:
In 2014, Eric and Lara invited Wanda to their wedding at Mara-a-Lago--which, despite what anyone thinks about the Trump sons, was a class-act thing to do.(p. 132).
After the election, the housekeeper texted Amy:
Quote:
"Don't worry Amy," Wanda wrote. "You can come to WH with me." Smiley face with sunglasses, thumbs-up emoticon. Our Polish cleaning lady had become my closest tie to the White House.
I wonder if her consultants charged the campaign twice for:
???
Campaign slogans are really tough to create. They have to capture the candidate's qualities and the public imagination at the same time in as few words as simple as possible with words everyone easily understands.
And it's also important to arrange those words in a way that is hard to spin, reverse, or get twisted.
So the word arrangement is just as important as the individual words. The slogan has to make perfect sense and it has to be as bomb-proof as possible.
Try it sometime. If you do ever make a serious attempt at writing a slogan, your paper will be chock full of turnarounds.
And then, when you finally discover the slogan you are absolutely convinced is the best of them, try to sell it to the politician. That's usually the hardest part of it.
Campaign slogans are really tough to create. They have to capture the candidate's qualities and the public imagination at the same time in as few words as simple as possible with words everyone easily understands.
And it's also important to arrange those words in a way that is hard to spin, reverse, or get twisted.
So the word arrangement is just as important as the individual words. The slogan has to make perfect sense and it has to be as bomb-proof as possible.
Try it sometime. If you do ever make a serious attempt at writing a slogan, your paper will be chock full of turnarounds.
And then, when you finally discover the slogan you are absolutely convinced is the best of them, try to sell it to the politician. That's usually the hardest part of it.
point taken....
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