Primary Colors by Joe Klein

Author:Joe Klein [Klein, Joe]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, General, Political, Presidents, Political Fiction, Political campaigns, Election, Presidents - Election
ISBN: 9780812976472
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Published: 2006-10-16T23:00:00+00:00

But he wouldn't need the stimulation this day. He knew about the poll and the ad before he started the town meeting-and he seemed to race through the questions from the audience, impatient, on autopilot, giving stock answers instead of locking in on the folks: this was, I realized, how politicians who were not Jack Stanton routinely worked these sorts of events. Having caught the drift, I went outside-it was a fabulously warm and bright day; birds were singing-and called Richard.

"Yeah, I saw the ad," he said. "It's completely fucking bizarre, like they started to do one spot, a slice-and-dice on us, then suddenly changed their minds. I mean, what are they after here? Enviro veterans? It's flicking idiotic. If they wanted to go negative, whyn't they just use that clip from the debate where he lit us up?"

"Because Jack mentioned that Harris wanted to raise taxes right in the middle of it?"

"Mebbe," Richard said. "But the 'politics as usual' line was dynamite. And then the 'He'll say anything to get elected' without a comeback from Jack: slam-fucking-dunk. I'd wear that out, I was them. It wouldn't even be perceived as going negative: It's like a fact, y'know? It's reality. He's just sayin': Lookit what happened last Saturday night-y'knowhattarnean? It's a no-brainer. But you know what's even more lucked up? Why on earth did they go negative on us-in Colorado-in the first place? They shoulda waited, sprung it on us in Florida. Weren't you the one saying Shaplen was so good?" "No, you were. You liked 'Rocky Mountain Hiya.' "

"He's a union Jew?"

I didn't know. Richard believed there were three basic categories of Democratic Party pols: Bottom, Southerns and Jews. Shaplen, corning from the Mine Workers and Louisville, had been intriguing. "I think he's Jewish," Richard said. "Shaplen could be anything right? Shortened Shapiro maybe."

"What difference does it make?" I asked.

"Know thine enemy," he said.

"The Jewish move would be to go negative in Colorado?" I said, teasing him.

"No, that's just it. The Jewish move would be to be freaked by cowboys. Be cautious. Drop the big one in Colorado to make sure Stanton doesn't come back and win it-and use a patriotic spot, a flag-waver. You gotta love it. Y'know, it probably has something to do with the mine workers never having much luck organizing out west-least, not as much as back east. Western labor guys tend to be scary, anarchists-Wobblies, gun nuts. The guys from Brooklyn go out there to organize, they figure they've gotta be Wyatt Earp."

"Richard, that is ninety-eight percent bullshit," I said. "You don't even know if Shaplen's Jewish."

"Oh, he's Jewish. And he's fucked up bigtime. He knows we're fighting with one arm, he knows we ain't gonna go negative first. So, I would've held off till Florida, then clocked us there."

"He might do that anyway," I said.

"He might," Richard said. "But it won't be as elegant. He's lost my fucking respect-and he's given us the opportunity to fight back. I was figuring on having a knock-down, drag-out with ol' Jackie, get him to whomp this shitbird before he whomped us.

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