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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 324.9730927 EAN: 9780679746492 ISBN: 0679746498 Label: Vintage Manufacturer: Vintage Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 1072 Publication Date: June 01, 1993 Publisher: Vintage Release Date: June 01, 1993 Studio: Vintage Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Product Description: An American Iliad in the guise of contemporary political reportage, What It Takes penetrates the mystery at the heart of all presidential campaigns: How do presumably ordinary people acquire that mixture of ambition, stamina, and pure shamelessness that makes a true candidate? As he recounts the frenzied course of the 1988 presidential race -- and scours the psyches of contenders from George Bush and Robert Dole to Michael Dukakis and Gary Hart -- Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Richard Ben Cramer comes up with the answers, in a book that is vast, exhaustively researched, exhilarating, and sometimes appalling in its revelations. Average Rating:
 Rating: - You'll be sorry it's only 1000 pages longIt's that good. The 1988 US presidential campaign was filled with quirky personalities--the wonky Dukakis, the foot-in-mouth George H.W. Bush, crusty Bob Dole, and of course Gary "Loose Cannon" Hart. Richard Ben Cramer gives us the men behind the names, the desperation behind the campaigns, and does it in a slightly gonzo, riproaring, eminently readable style. Cramer achieved what I would have thought impossible... he actually made me root for Dole, sympathize with GHWB, and understand ... Read More Rating: - Best Politcal Book Ever!Cramer's research and insights are impeccable. Frequent flashbacks are a bit disconcerting in what amounts essentially to a joint biography of six significant late 20th century political figures and the business of politics. Cramer's literary device of writing through the imagined thoughts of the principals is compelling. I know Mike Dukakis and Cramer has him absolutely cold. The Bush and Dole portrayals also comport with what I have learned about them elsewhere. Ii't fair to assume then that Cramer ... Read More Rating: - Best Election Campaign Book Ever!I read this book in hardcover when it was published. I can't imagine a better book on the rigors, the deceptions, a true inside story of how campaigns really work. So insightful! The section on Joe Biden is certainly worth re-reading. He is an amazing man. His history is so helpful in looking at this election and comparing him to McCain's Barbie doll saviour, if any comparison is needed after her lame performance reciting practiced answers even though the answers were not to the questions asked. ... Read More Rating: - Now is the TimeIf you haven't read this book now is the time! Whenever I am forced to chose only one book as my all time favorite What It Takes (The Way to the White House) by Richard Ben Cramer is the one...I read it when it was first published and still have yet to find another book about politics that is so enthralling..Lots of Joe Biden in the book so that alone makes it a timely book to read now... Rating: - An epic book...absolutely timelessThis is a book people might shy away from since it deals with the 1988 campaign, and those candidates are basically ancient history (except for Biden). However, what the book really describes it literally 'what it takes' for any man or woman to believe they can be President. We look at the people running today, and we see them as TV characters and sometimes buffoons, but forget that in their youth they were probably the smartest, most popular, most driven people we would have known. Just ... Read More 
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