Quest for the Presidency 1992

Quest for the Presidency 1992 reveals for the first time the full story of what really happened in the tumultuous 1992 presidential election. With unparalleled access to the inner workings of the various campaigns, Newsweek's award-winning team of reporters gathered the in-depth stories of the candidates; their handlers, pollsters, and supporters; and their strategies, strengths, and weaknesses. Woven together here in spellbinding and insightful narrative, these accounts reveal the changing order of American politics, which saw the strongest third-force challenge in eighty years, and the changing portrait of the American voter, more cynical yet more involved in shaping the political process than ever before. The rich reporting and you-are-there intimacy of private meetings, confidential conversations, informal war-gaming sessions, and other key moments in the campaigns provide new insight into the players and events of this critical election year. A broad array of never-before-published campaign documents and sixty-one of Newsweek's best on-the-scene photographs flesh out the record. The result offers an essential guide to understanding not only the Clinton candidacy but also the Clinton presidency; keen human understanding of George Bush's fall; and a hint of how a Texas billionaire's down-home style may have changed the political terrain forever.

The tumultuous presidential election of 1992 was a moment of historic change in America, and a special team of top Newsweek correspondents witnessed it all from the inside and won a National Magazine Award for the coverage. Here for the first time is the full story, augmented with authentic documents and on-the-scene photographs.

Quest for the Presidency 1992 reveals for the first time the full story of what really happened in the tumultuous 1992 presidential election. With unparalleled access to the inner workings of the various campaigns, Newsweek's award-winning team of reporters gathered the in-depth stories of the candidates; their handlers, pollsters, and supporters; and their strategies, strengths, and weaknesses.

Publishers Weekly

A team of Newsweek reporters virtually lived with the 1992 presidential candidates for more than a year, tracking their respective campaigns. Full of revelations and witty turns of phrase, this crackling report provides a unique window on the contenders' maneuverings, pressures and frustrations. Hillary Clinton, we are told, in effect became her husband's closest campaign adviser, while his handlers systematically devised a rationale for his directionless candidacy, equipping him with a populist message. Bush, a reluctant campaigner who hated confrontations, by this account wanted Quayle off the ticket but could not bring himself to dump the Vice President. Meanwhile, a Bush adviser secretly approached Colin Powell to persuade the general to become Bush's running mate. Led by team anchor DeFrank (Newsweek's deputy Washington bureau chief and senior White House correspondent), the authors do a good job of explaining how Ross Perot tapped into the public's sense of alienation by packaging himself as a pragmatist who could take on bureaucrats and cure the nation's ills through sound business sense. Withering profiles of Jerry Brown, Patrick Buchanan, Paul Tsongas and other contenders round out the chronicle. An appendix reproduces dozens of confidential memoranda and documents from the various campaigns. Photos. 25,000 first printing. (Nov.)

Peter Goldman, the principal writer, is a contributing editor at Newsweek, where he has written about politics and government for more than thirty years, including two earlier volumes in the Quest for the Presidency series. He is also author or coauthor of six other books.Thomas M. DeFrank, Newsweek's deputy Washington bureau chief and senior White House correspondent, won the 1993 White House Correspondents' Association's highest award for excellence in reporting for his account of George Bush's defeat.Mark Miller, who enjoyed unequalled openness in covering the Clinton camp, came to Newsweek in 1985 and is currently assigned to the Los Angeles bureau.Andrew Murr, whose Herculean task was to follow Ross Perot, Bob Kerrey, Paul Tsongas, and Jerry Brown, joined Newsweek in 1983 and is now based in the Los Angeles bureau.Tom Mathews, a former senior editor at Newsweek, has written for twenty-five years on subjects ranging from foreign affairs to fly fishing.