As the nation moves deeper into what may be the most dramatic and consequential Presidential election in generations, there is value in seeking perspective from out of the past. That is what one gains in full measure by revisiting Richard Ben Cramer’s classic account of the 1988 campaign: What It Takes: The Way to the White House.
Time made What It Takes the #1 Book of the Year when it came out in 1992. Though improbable to describe a book of 1,047 pages (small print) as a “page turner,” Russell Baker of the The N.Y. Times wrote “I just cannot stop reading… irresistible”.
Described by the L.A. Times Book Review as “a hopped-up amalgam of Teddy White, Tom Wolfe, and Norman Mailer” the book was conceded by all reviewers to be unlike anything they had seen before.
Nonetheless What It Takes generated great controversy upon publication, not least because of its tellingly unflattering portraits of some of the most famous consultants, and journalists of the day, from Pat Caddell to Ben Bradlee to E.J. Dionne.
However, with the passage of time the book has steadily risen in stature and become the gold standard for its genre. Thus was it described by Ben Smith in his Politico article “The Book that defined Modern Campaign Reporting” (12/30/2010).
Nine presidential cycles ago, still crackling fresh
At the time he began his six-year commitment to his monumental work in 1986, Cramer (1950-2013) was already a colorful legend in American journalism. Previously, at only 29 and already a star reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, his articles on the Middle East won him a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. He would further show his versatility by penning best-selling biographies of two icons of American sport- Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio.
The product of exhaustive research and over one thousand interviews, the book’s central focus is the six candidates who granted Cramer seemingly endless hours of their time over six years and unrestricted access to family, friends, colleagues, and personal papers.
They were two Republicans- Vice-President George Bush, the eventual winner in 1988, and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole- and four Democrats- eventual nominee Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis along with his rivals, Missouri Congressman Dick Gephardt, Colorado Senator Gary Hart, and (improbable as it would have seemed back then, a bridge to the 2020 election) Delaware Senator Joe Biden.
Going far beyond an account of a single year -1988- Cramer takes us deep into the past of these six men and brilliantly of America itself. Via the poverty-stricken Kansas boyhood of Dole we are given painfully vivid images of the Depression era Dust Bowl reminiscent of The Grapes of Wrath and rivalling Robert Caro’s magnificent portrait of Lyndon Johnson’s Hill Country.
In stunning contrast, we are introduced to a generations-long panorama of privilege stretching from the rocky coast of Maine to the oil fields of Texas that is the Bush dynasty.
With similarly rich prose and detail Cramer unfolds the highly varied immigrant experience- Greek, Dutch, German, and Irish- that backlights the humble origins of all four Democrats.
In prose that is always compelling and often soaringly lyrical, Cramer delivers unforgettable vignettes that eloquently illuminate the humanity of his protagonists: young Bob Dole lying in bed with his little brother listening to doctor prescribed maggots chewing away on the boy’s diseased leg; Dick Gephardt weeping in the arms of Jesse Jackson on the night he realized his dream had died; the agony and heartbreak of George and Barbara Bush over the long cruel death of their baby daughter; and the life-shattering moment for Joe Biden on the night of the horrific automobile crash that killed his wife and daughter, and maimed his two sons.
With penetrating insight and empathy, Cramer poses the question of where normal decent men acquire the ambition, discipline, stamina, will, and pure shamelessness required of those entering the frenzy of modern Presidential politics.
His answer is that they must want this prize worse than anything, and be willing for sustained portions of their lives to give up everything, and to be absolutely, and unreservedly willing to do “What It Takes”.
In its size, scope, and vision this literary masterpiece is the War and Peace of American political journalism. For those who find the maelstrom of politics irresistible and who would seek some clues to the origins of our present madness, What It Takes is this summer’s most rewarding read.
Bill Moloney is a Fellow in Conservative Thought at Colorado Christian University's Centennial Institute and a former Colorado Education Commissioner. He studied at Oxford and the University of London.
