Available at stores that sell everything for a dollar or less, this book is a hard-copy bargain. Even for those who have read other campaign trail books, this book offers a combination of unvarnished sad truths (Presidential candidates speaking to empty rooms, waving to empty runways, all to create the “virtual reality” of having something to say and someone to listen to it) together with a sense of lost opportunities.As campaign reform looms on the horizon, I found this book especially appealing for its detailed look at “the people's candidate,” Morry Taylor, the “Grizz”–a person I never heard of during the actual campaign. The book really drives home how flawed our existing electoral system is today, as well as all the campaign contributions, “rented strangers,” and other anomalies that make good Presidents an accident rather than a choice.
I read the book shortly after reading Ted Halstead and Michael Lind, “The Radical Center”, on citizen-centered politics of choice, and there could be no better book for appreciating just how radical Halstead and Michael are, than this book.
Documents Power Shifts from Wall Street to VCs to Ideas,
April 8, 2000
Michael Lewis
Great airplane book. The story of Jim Clarke, the only man to have created three billion-dollar ventures-Netscape, Silicon Graphics, and Healtheon. Documents the shifting of power from Wall Street to Silicon Valley, and offers some wonderful insights into the culture. Does not, by virtue of focusing on the one really big success story out of the Valley, begin to address the human waste and carnage from all the failed start-ups.
Still Relevant, A Bargain, Useful Insights,
