i first heard about this book on the daily show. i must have been drinking, tho, because i am positive it was a female author i saw interviewed.
do you know all the love and joy that karl rove brought to our political process? well this book is about that. it follows the sawyer miller group from its founding to demise. they worked on multiple political campaigns here and abroad. they pioneered crazy schemes like focus groups, polling to direct campaigns, and microtargeting. practices that are common place today. and they were able to export these practices to fledgling democracies in latin america and asia. they even won corazon aquino an election.
sounds like a great story? well parts of it are. the author is not detailed enough about what they sawyer miller group actually did. there are interesting recaps of foreign elections, there are allusions to knock down, drag out campaign infighting. but the book does not go beyond that. none of the american elections get covered. (yes, i know that it is about exporting american style politics around the world, but throw me a freaking bone.) and the author has an annoying habit of referring to the stars of the book as "alpha dogs". sure, the metaphor is apt, but it gets annoying after the tenth or so time the author ends an anecdote with some variation on, "that's what alpha dogs do."
that being said, it is an engaging story for a politically interested guy like myself. the windows into the inner workings of a campaign are enlightening. it took my local library quite some time to get this book. i think that i would have enjoyed it a lot more had i read it before november 4, 2008.
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