All the President's Mad Men

I have a new article up on The American Prospect's website on the continuing relevance of Joe McGinniss' classic, The Selling of the President 1968. There's a nod to the book's influence on Mad Men and lots of classic Nixon video.

As I mention in the article, McGinniss' book was the first political book that I ever read. I think it ended up in my parents' house as a Book of the Month club selection. I was intrigued by the cover during the long summer leading up to Nixon's resignation -- and dug as deep into it as a precocious 8-year old could dig. I do remember being mesmerized by the language spoken by the campaign operatives -- salty and jazzy -- and also by those scripts! It taught me that politics was a pageant of sorts. Nothing was an accident. There was drama and planning involved in it.

Forty years on, it's still a brilliant book with a lot to teach us all.