Overview
Just before Election Day 2000, Al Gore figured the presidential race was his to win or lose. In the end, he did both. How did this happen?
Bestselling author Roger Simon provides the first complete look at America's most bizarre and most explosive presidential campaign—not just the final thirty-six days, but the two-year, three-way battle between George W. Bush, Al Gore, and, yes, Bill Clinton, to see who would dominate American politics.
Simon reveals how the two candidates struggled to contend with the long shadow cast by Bill Clinton and the endless psychodrama of his presidency. Both studied Clinton's precision use of politics and his beguiling employment of stagecraft, avoiding hot-button issues and trying to become, as Clinton had been, First Friend to the nation. However, while Al Gore viewed the presidential race as a job interview, George Bush viewed it as a date.
Divided We Stand is a book that makes news. Simon provides never-before-revealed details of the rift between Clinton and Gore, including Gore's secret plans if he had replaced Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal of 1998. Simon also reveals how Clinton tried—and failed—to pick Gore's running mate in 2000 and offers new details of how Joe Lieberman snared the spot on the ticket.
Simon further exposes new and shocking details about how the dirtiest politics of the 2000 race—the deplorable smear campaign in South Carolina—kicked off a campaign of open warfare between John McCain and George W. Bush. Readers will also learn:
- How Ralph Nader affected the outcome of the race and how he feels today about his role.
- How Al Gore lost his home state and why George Bush did so poorly with African American voters, even after wooing them so hard.
- How Republican Congressional staff members were so angry about union and black turnout for Al Gore and other Democrats that they held a secret meeting after the election to study ways of depressing black and labor voter turnout in the future.
- Why the race was so close and what it means for the future of America.
- Why, for better or worse, Bill Clinton continues to dominate our political landscape.
Divided We Stand is the story not just of a campaign, but of a country. Simon's account will make you ask yourself what you might have done differently had you known what lurked in the corners you could not see.
About the Author:
Roger Simon is the award-winning chief political correspondent for U.S. News & World Report and a nationally syndicated columnist. He is the author of the bestselling Show Time and of the widely acclaimed Road Show, which Time magazine called "the most fun you can have with a political book." He lives with his wife, Marcia Kramer of the Washington Post, just outside Washington's Beltway.