BOOK REVIEW: An interesting read if you’re an uber politico …

Even though names for presidential candidates are already being bantered around, it’ still too early for any really exciting discussions about the 2016 election.

So what to do?

Well, for all those uber politicos out there, Patrick Buchanan can help you fill the political void with his latest book, “The Greatest Comeback,” published by Crown Forum.

You would have to be an uber politico to wade through this hardback, which has a very narrow topic that is stated concisely in the book’s sub-title: “How Richard Nixon Rose from Defeat to Create the New Majority.”

Don’t expect a biography on Nixon, or a behind-the-scenes look at his administration. This is the story of how Nixon surprised everyone by not only resurrecting his political career, but achieved an astonishing political comeback that made him the 37th President of the United States.

As far as that goes, don’t expect the book to be entirely about Nixon. While Buchanan does tell of Nixon’s rise to the presidency, a lot of the story is told regarding his own contribution to crafting Nixon’s win.

“The Greatest Comeback” picks up after Nixon’s loss to John F. Kennedy in 1960, and then his embarrassing failed attempt for the governorship of California in 1962. Everyone thought that was the end of Nixon’s political career. It’s at that point this story begins.

But don’t expect an easy-flowing story. This book clips along rapidly at dishing out the nuts-and-bolts activity of developing and executing political strategy than it does at telling the story of Nixon, the person, during this time. That’s why you really do have to be an uber politico to enjoy this volume; you’ll be awash in names both familiar and not of politicians, pundits, political hacks, and journalists and their small or large bits in rebuilding a new majority that would put Nixon in power.

At times, I thought there’s just too much minutia in the telling of this story, and no real broad, compelling story lines. Yet, I found myself reading just one more page until I had completed the book.

Maybe there’s a little uber politico in myself.

That and an interest in political history, and this book might be an interesting filler until the 2016 campaign really begins to light up.

Scotty

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to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are
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