Shrum and Dumber
Memoirs of the man who thrice saved us from a Democratic presidency
By Matthew Yglesias
from Washington Monthly
Walking around Washington, D.C., telling people you’re reading Bob Shrum’s forthcoming memoir turns out to be a fantastic small-talk gambit. People are astounded, confused, sympathetic. Someone gave him a book deal? Who would read that? Who would buy it? Good questions, all. But none quite as good as the question of why Shrum wrote the book.
Not, it seems, because he has any particular point to make about campaigns and elections in America, the role of the political consultant in the contemporary Democratic Party, the future of progressive politics, or, indeed, much of anything at all. His tide of anecdotes will entertain anyone interested in horse-race politics and not averse to a little name-dropping (did you know Bob Shrum met Laurence Tribe before he was famous? and Bill Clinton? and James Carville? do you care?), but in his own retelling they add up to almost nothing. A lifetime working at the highest levels of political hackdom, and he’s reached essentially no conclusions on any subject of interest—or, if he has reached any, he seems disinclined to share them. Instead of a book making some point about the world, he’s written what is, in effect, Shrum’s last campaign—a race to save his much-tattered reputation as a perennial loser, a man who’s lost more presidential campaigns than anyone else alive.
No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner is the title, and the candidate does an admirable job of staying mostly on message, when one takes into account the considerable temptations to backslide. Rather than providing excuses, Shrum wants us to believe, in essence, that his reputation has been sullied unfairly by a cabal of unscrupulous, backbiting Clintonite centrists who have sought to trample him, the progressive standard-bearer who’s been fighting for you, the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party.
(Continued here.)
By Matthew Yglesias
from Washington Monthly
Walking around Washington, D.C., telling people you’re reading Bob Shrum’s forthcoming memoir turns out to be a fantastic small-talk gambit. People are astounded, confused, sympathetic. Someone gave him a book deal? Who would read that? Who would buy it? Good questions, all. But none quite as good as the question of why Shrum wrote the book.
Not, it seems, because he has any particular point to make about campaigns and elections in America, the role of the political consultant in the contemporary Democratic Party, the future of progressive politics, or, indeed, much of anything at all. His tide of anecdotes will entertain anyone interested in horse-race politics and not averse to a little name-dropping (did you know Bob Shrum met Laurence Tribe before he was famous? and Bill Clinton? and James Carville? do you care?), but in his own retelling they add up to almost nothing. A lifetime working at the highest levels of political hackdom, and he’s reached essentially no conclusions on any subject of interest—or, if he has reached any, he seems disinclined to share them. Instead of a book making some point about the world, he’s written what is, in effect, Shrum’s last campaign—a race to save his much-tattered reputation as a perennial loser, a man who’s lost more presidential campaigns than anyone else alive.
No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner is the title, and the candidate does an admirable job of staying mostly on message, when one takes into account the considerable temptations to backslide. Rather than providing excuses, Shrum wants us to believe, in essence, that his reputation has been sullied unfairly by a cabal of unscrupulous, backbiting Clintonite centrists who have sought to trample him, the progressive standard-bearer who’s been fighting for you, the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party.
(Continued here.)
Powered by Blogger
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home