From Publishers Weekly
Mutual contempt fueled a presidential contest between candidates who "disliked each other before they knew each other." That's the jumping off point for Thomas, Newsweek's assistant managing editor, and a coterie of reporters in this insider look at the campaigns of George W. Bush and John Kerry. Since politics is "intensely personal," the writers contend that "it is impossible to understand the 2004 presidential campaign without appreciating the nature of the animus between the two men." Both candidates encouraged dueling caricatures rooted in their Yale University experiences. Kerry saw students like Bush as "insular," while Bush apparently felt people like Kerry were "sanctimonious suck-ups." This premise drives an account focused more by prickly personalities than by issues like war or the economy, which the reporting team claims were trumped by "more visceral concerns" like strength and resolve. The journalists had "unusual access" to Bush, Kerry, their staffs and families, yet what follows in these pages won't surprise anyone familiar with the mainstream media coverage. There's Karl Rove's "mystique of an all-seeing, all-knowing boss of bosses," Kerry's cell phone obsession, Laura Bush's "perfect-wife way," etc. Some stories do stand out. The disciplined Bush campaign contrasts starkly with the too-many-cooks-in-the-kitchen chaos that plagued the Kerry effort. And during the Swift Boat controversy, the journalists note how Kerry caved into top aides' fears about voter reaction, ignoring his gut instinct to immediately "hit back." Nonetheless, the book does little to dispel Kerry's own critique of Newsweek's "gossipy" reporting. The analysis is also unremarkable: prognostications on cabinet reshufflings, Social Security reform, Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential ambitions and other topics ring familiar bells. Readers seeking confirmations rather than revelations about how the president won re-election will find them in abundance here. Photos. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


Campaigns & Elections, February 2005
"A good read and a chance to see the inside of the campaign, without a year-long time commitment."


Campaigns & Elections, February 2005
"A good read and a chance to see the inside of the campaign, without a year-long time commitment."


Library Journal, February 15, 2005
"A fast-paced account of the bitter and most expensive presidential race in American history."


Weekly Standard, January 24, 2005
"Quite a piece of reportage... largely successful."


Rush Limbaugh
"Get a copy of [this] book."


New York Sun, January 25, 2005
"There is much to recommend in Evan Thomas's 'Election 2004'..."


Book Description
An extraordinary behind-the-scenes look at the 2004 presidential election reported by Newsweek's premier political reporters, including bestselling biographer Evan Thomas. A full year before the presidential election, four Newsweek reporters are detached from the magazine to work fulltime on getting inside the campaigns of the Republican and Democratic candidates. Because Newsweek promises not to reveal any information until after the votes are cast, the reporters receive highly unusual access. They travel with the candidates, live at their headquarters, befriend their staffs. They blend into the background, where they watch and listen. Evan Thomas has been the writer for this project for the last three elections, and each time, he has brilliantly woven together an award-winning narrative of the campaign, based on the reporting of the Newsweek team. The goal is a rich narrative, a telling, human, and personal story of the extraordinary ordeal of running for the presidency. The characters are the candidates, their families, and their top advisers. They battle uncertainty, exhaustion, a hostile media, and each other in a high-stakes contest that can produce only one winner. The 2004 election promises to be drama of a high order, a close, tense, bitter struggle in a deeply divided country caught in a strange and hard war. Newsweek's reporters will be there at the critical moments, recording the scenes that will decide the outcome. After the election, the Newsweek team will produce an expanded version of the stories that appeared in the magazine and Thomas will write an essay on the new administration, its key players and its prospects, the tone and direction it is expected to set. The book that emerges will be a first draft of history--not rough, but knowing and deeply reported.


About the Author
As assistant managing editor at Newsweek since April 1991, Evan Thomas has guided the magazine's overall coverage and written more than a hundred cover stories. He served as Washington bureau chief from 1986 to 1996 and is the author of the 1996 campaign chronicle, Back from the Dead: How Clinton Survived the Republican Revolution. He makes regular appearances on the Today Show, Meet the Press, Charlie Rose, and Imus in the Morning. His other books include Robert Kennedy: His Life and most recently the bestselling John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy.Covering the Democrats are Eleanor Clift, one of Washington's best-known political reporters and a regular on The McLaughlin Group, and Jonathan Darman, a 2002 graduate of Harvard (and son of Reagan aide Richard Darman). Covering the Republicans is Kevin Peraino, who most recently reported the invasion of Iraq with the Third Infantry Division. Coordinating the coverage is Peter Goldman, longtime senior writer at Newsweek.

FROM THE PUBLISHER