The Way to win

                                                                                                            Mark Halperin

Mark Halperin was inspired to write this book by a very significant episode in American politics, the moment when the Bushes and the Clintons paid tribute to Barack Obama, the 44^th president of the United States, in Little Rock Arkansas.

The author throws four questions that he attempts to answer in 419 pages and ten sections of his work:

1.      How has a supposedly egalitarian nation come to have its politics nominated by two competing dynasties?

2.      What have these families learn from observing and opposing each other?

3.      Why has American politics, during two decades of Bush-Clinton rule, turned so unruly, bitter and destructive?

4.      As the country considers its next presidential choice, what lessons are there from the experience of the two clans?

Halperin assumes that the Bushes and the Clintons have dominated the U.S. politics because they have learnt the “Trade Secrets”, which are the specific principles and practices acquired over the years in the business, that as a result create the formula The Way to Win

The purpose is this book is to analyze the simple aspects of Clinton’s talent, according to Halperin the smart candidates from any party are applying the lessons given by Clinton’s career.

Despite the interesting of the Bushes’ political history career, the author makes clear that this is not the center of his attention, but his political adviser Karl C. Rove, who is an effective strategist; his duty was to master the theory and practicalities of winning elections; however the book does not contemplate the sui generis characteristics of his method, the book seeks to expose the methods that could be applied for anyone who is concerned about presidential politics.

The importance of Clinton and Rove resides of the fact that they know how to win elections better than anybody else in their generation. Clinton in1992 was the first Democrat to win the elections in twelve years, and the first Democrat to be elected two times consecutively after Roosevelt. After the prosperity of the democrats Bush was able to win the elections in 2000, and in 2004 despite the public discomfort about the economy and the Iraq war, the Republican candidate beat the Democrats in a way that had never been so organized nor energized before.

 Halperin emphasizes that he is not pretending to reduce Clinton from president to campaign operative, neither to put Rove in the level of a principal, he just remarks that both of them are of equal stature regarding political campaigns.  

Clinton and Rove would agree that politics and policies are always integrated in political campaigns, therefore election success and governing failure cannot be seen as separate affairs.

The two dynasties have reigned alternating power, borrowing tactics from each other, creating two leading brands in American politics: Bush Politics and Clinton Politics.