Winning Right
Campaign Politics and Conservative Policies
-
- $16.99
-
- $16.99
Publisher Description
It's been nearly two decades since Chris Matthews' national bestseller Hardball opened a door onto the inner workings of Washington politics, and now the time is ripe for a sharp, new insider's perspective on how the game is played and on the challenges facing the Republican Party in the future. No one is more qualified to provide that analysis than Ed Gillespie: In Winning Right, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee draws from lessons learned in more than twenty years of campaign strategy and national policy debate -- most especially from his role at the heart of the historic and groundbreaking 2004 presidential election -- to reveal how the game of politics is played on its highest level. In a frank and engaging narrative, he looks inside the George W. Bush presidency and beyond, to discuss such topics as
• A political code of ethics and playing by the rules
• Successes and failures in campaign planning and execution
• The role of old and new media
• The battle for the Supreme Court
• Hot-button issues
• The future of the GOP -- and how to win right in 2008
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The former Republican National Committee chairman channels his inner Sun Tzu in this memoir-cum-campaign primer, serving up pithy lessons learned on various campaigns; dealings with then-Supreme Court nominees John Roberts, Samuel Alito and the ill-fated Harriet Miers; and conservative talking points on familiar issues like health care, immigration and national security. Unfortunately, maxims like "strategy should define tactics, not the other way around," "a picture's worth a thousand press releases," and "loyalty, loyalty, loyalty" have less to do with superior GOP campaigning tactics than they do with plain old politicking. Gillespie's work with some Republican leading lights-including Elizabeth Dole, Karl Rove and President George W. Bush-might lead readers to expect more seminal insights, if not a couple of savory back-stage tidbits. But the tales here are pedestrian, jumping from receiving lines to campaign buses to Washington power lunches, giving superficial confirmation to what readers already know, including the fact that Rove "is the hardest driving force of the Bush administration." Before he stepped down from the post in 2005, Gillespie told the president, "I will never embarrass you as your former RNC chairman." In this volume, he stays tediously true to his word.