"Presidential campaigns are about storytelling. A winning presidential campaign presents the candidate's life story to voters. A losing campaign allows someone else to frame that story."

"A candidate who runs principally on his or her biography is acutely vulnerable to the accusation that this biography is embellished. Such a candidate, in other words, is a fat target for the Freak Show. One signature of Freak Show politics is a fixation on personality and alleged hypocrisy. Another is the ease with which shrewd political operatives can manipulate the Freak Show's attention to hijack the public image of an opponent."

Mark Halperin & John F. Harris - The Way to Win



The new Halperin and Harris book is a good read. The authors suggest we live in a new world of media, media become Freak Show. They share "trade secrets" and offer up sharp, well reasoned behind the scenes analysis sure to be of interest to any political junkie. An important read for serious students of media. Highly recommended.