Fred Who‪?‬

Fred Karger is not your average Republican candidate for president in

2012. For one thing, he's moderate. For another, he's Jewish. And

for another, he's gay. While he never hid his politics or religion

from the world, he did keep his homosexuality a secret for years. He

was 41 when he finally came out to his family. And in his 27 years at

one of the most highly regarded political consulting firms in the

U.S., he never told his peers. Only after Karger retired in 2004 did

he reveal himself.

The revelations coincided with a new found social activism that

blossomed in 2008 when Karger became involved in the effort to save

same sex marriage in California (the battle over Proposition 8). In

"outing" the Mormon Church's secret funding of the campaign to

eliminate same sex marriage, Karger found himself the subject of

international headlines; vitriolic condemnation by the Church and its

front, the National Organization for Marriage; and even received a

death threat. He also received numerous messages from gay men and

women--many of them young--thanking him for his efforts.

Having worked on hundreds of political campaigns, including nine

presidential races, Karger was energized to run for president.

As he makes clear in this book, crashing the party is nothing new to

him. In his youthfully exuberant days, he crashed the stage at the

Academy Awards twice, Hubert Humphrey's campaign plane, and, yes, even

the White House. "When you are a closeted gay person, you learn to be

creative," he explains.

In FRED WHO, Karger--with uncommon candor and poignant humor--answers

the question that everyone from Sir David Frost to Rachel Maddow, from

the New York Times to Politico, has been asking for the last several

months: Who the hell is Fred Karger? He painstakingly relates what it

is like to live in the closet, afraid to tell family, friends,

colleagues, and the candidates for whom he works. He shares the

lessons learned working for the likes of Ronald Reagan and George H.W.

Bush. And he offers wonderful stories about life on the political

trail and in Hollywood (where he was an actor before turning to

politics. Sound familiar?)

By the end of this memoir, the reader will indeed know who Fred Karger

is and have new insights into the many worlds that he has inhabited.

You may even want to support his candidacy.