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One-Car Caravan: On the Road with the 2004 Democrats Before America Tunes In

Book by Walter Shapiro, 2003; Review by Margie Brassil

Just as the author hopes, this is the kind of book you take to bed with you to read. And, because it's such a fun read, it keeps you up way past your bedtime. This book is for political junkies who can't get enough. It's for people who like behind-the-scene stories about other people.

But, this book is not for anyone looking for guidance about who to vote for on March 2. Shapiro is very even-handed. Just when you think he is favoring Dean, he starts to sound likes he's favoring Edwards. He gives ample time to Kerry, Lieberman, and Graham (who dropped out after the book was finished). While the latter portraits are less favorable, that has more to do with their own personalities than Shapiro's bias (Lieberman can't hide that he's a conservative-although he also comes through as very witty; and Kerry is a "sad-sack" looking fellow). Throughout the book, Gephardt seems to be waging a quixotic crusade, with never enough money and never able to shake his "old Democrat" label. He seemed to disappear completely in the last half of the book.

Shapiro doesn't bother with the "minor" candidates, except to give Sharpton a cameo. The author weighs whether he should interview Kucinich, until he attends a rally where Kucinich breaks spontaneously into "This Land is Our Land" at which point Shapiro writes him off as a nutcase.

In addition to the stories, Shapiro provides very useful background on the primary election process. His writing is colorful, as well as insightful. He switches with ease between the candidates' stories and his own reflections on the entire primary process-with which he is intimately familiar since he has covered them as an "on the bus" reporter since the 1970s. That fact gives this book its credibility, and may keep it in print after the 2004 candidate is chosen.

Had Enough?: A Handbook for Fighting Back

Book by James Carville, 2003; Review by James Kehl

James Carville has a new book entitled Had Enough? that every Democrat should read and study. Carville writes that he read that the Republicans wanted to set a big new goal for America. They decided the new goal for America should be to put a man on the moon. Now, my memory is not what it used to be. But I distinctly remember that America put a man on the moon over 30 years ago. This must be their definition of " new" - do something that is over 30 years old! And if these people manage to put a person on the moon, their past behavior (e.g., Iraq) indicates they won't have a plan to get the person back! The poor person on the moon could spend his days floating in space!

Editorial Review: Veteran political strategist James Carville has always had a knack for being concise. He is, after all, credited with coining "It's the economy, stupid" while directing the 1992 presidential campaign of Bill Clinton. And as host of CNN's Crossfire, he favored a combative in-your-face approach that stood in stark contrast to the stereotype of the mushy liberal. In Had Enough, Carville, along with co-author Jeff Nussbaum, takes that economic phrasing and aggressive style to offer a handbook for lefties tired of losing arguments and elections. To point out how fundamentally misguided he believes the GOP to be, Carville goes straight to the preamble to the U.S. Constitution. While Republicans can be credited with providing for the common defense, Carville says, they have failed miserably on all other directives issued by the founding fathers on what government is supposed to do, including promoting the general welfare, establishing justice, ensuring domestic tranquility, and securing the blessings of liberty for ourselves and posterity. Although the arguments are not remarkably different from those made in a slew of other lefty books (Bush's tax cuts favor the rich, Republicans seek to curtail civil liberties), the book also offers "Had Enough" solutions to pressing issues of public policy that will come in handy for liberals looking to defeat a conservative brother-in-law in a political argument or even hold their own on Crossfire. These solutions always sound eminently reasonable, although that's due in large part to their being contrasted to Carville's interpretation of Bush and company's approach ("Use everything as an excuse to dig, drill, and burn.") Still, Carville and Nussbaum make a cogent, impassioned, and highly entertaining indictment of the Bush administration, which, combined with a smattering of incongruously placed but nonetheless tempting Cajun recipes, makes Had Enough a worthwhile read.

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