TAKE IT BACK

Reviewed 11/23/2006

Take it Back, by Carville & Begala

Access to this book courtesy of the
Santa Clara, CA City Public Library
TAKE IT BACK
Our Party, Our Country, Our Culture
James Carville
Paul Begala
New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006

Rating:

5.0

High

ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-7752-5
ISBN-10 0-7432-7752-X 349pp. HC/GSI $24.00

The Democratic Party, according to the authors of this book, has a problem: It has lost the knack of winning elections.

There are still several leading Democrats who think we don't have a problem [with getting elected]. They look at the 2000 election and point out that Al Gore won. We agree, he did—and not just the popular vote. A sensible examination of the ballots in Florida shows that Gore carried that state, and therefore the electoral college.

– Page 1

The authors, both political consultants, offer this volume as a means of correcting that problem. They begin by analyzing the general strategy that won Bush the White House in 2000 and 2004. Put simply, this was that he had a point of view and stuck to it; his 2004 campaign organization succeeded in defining John Kerry as "weak, waffling and weird". The Bush team stayed on the attack, helped greatly by "527 organizations" like the hypocritically named Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, while the Democrats (for whatever reason) failed to fight back.1

They then discuss a series of issues like abortion, pointing out how the Democrats should tackle them in the 2008 campaign. Their work amounts to a handbook for winning elections. I'm tempted to call it "Campaigning for Dummies". It's full of good advice on everything from moral values and religious faith to national security and economic issues. Along the way they identify some of the worst examples of hypocritical Republicans. One is Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, a veritable poster child of hypocrisy and sanctimoniousness.

Being both lifelong Democrats and devout Catholics, the authors put a lot of attitude into this work. But while they do denounce various people and policies, this is no hate-fest, no diatribe: The denunciations are well-reasoned. As such, the book fulfills its authors' purpose very well. It contains an extensive set of endnotes but, alas, no index. Despite this lack and a few minor errors, I recommend it as a valuable contribution to the political dialogue.

1 According to the authors, they felt the voters would be turned off by negative campaigning. I find this hard to credit for, as the authors report on pages 23-24, they even refused to attack Bush on his record.
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