The Candidate

• Author is both a pre-eminent scholar of American politics and a veteran of numerous presidential campaigns
• Filled with entertaining characters and lively stories from campaigns past, the book also takes readers up to the ongoing 2012 campaign
• Powerful and provocative, it will stand as the benchmark book on how and why presidential campaigns succeed-and why they fail
• Offering a structural analysis of all types of candidate (challengers, incumbents, and successors), it is the rare campaign book that is both timeless and of the moment

Readership: General Readers; students and scholars of Political Science, American Politics, and U.S. History

Samuel L. Popkin, Professor of Political Science, University of California-San Diego

Samuel L. Popkin is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego. He has also been a consulting analyst in presidential campaigns, serving as consultant to the Clinton campaign on polling and strategy, to the CBS News election units from 1983 to 1990 on survey design and analysis, and more recently to the Gore campaign. He has also served as consultant to political parties in Canada and Europe and to the Departments of State and Defense. His most recent book is The Reasoning Voter: Communication and Persuasion in Presidential Campaigns; earlier he co-authored Issues and Strategies: The Computer Simulation of Presidential Campaigns; and he co-edited Chief of Staff: Twenty-Five Years of Managing the Presidency.

Prologue
Chapter 1: Campaign Juggling
Chapter 2: Planning for Chaos
Chapter 3: Challengers: Senator Clinton in 2008
Chapter 4: Challenger Case Study: The Search for the Experienced Virgin
Chapter 5: Incumbents: Regicide or More of the Same
Chapter 6: Incumbent Case Study: President Bush in 1992
Chapter 7: Seven Successor-Lapdogs or Leaders
Chapter 8: Successor Case Study: Vice-President Al Gore in 2000
Chapter 9: Teams that Work
Chapter 10: Conclusion: Is This Any Way to Pick a President?
Bibliography
Notes
Index