|
The Politician: An Insider's Account of John Edwards's Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal That Brought Him Down |  | Author: Andrew Young
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
Category: Book
List Price: $24.99
Buy New: $13.84
as of 3/11/2010 09:49 UTC details
You Save: $11.15 (45%)
New (51) Used (19) from $13.84
Seller: Hawaii Store
Rating:  146 reviews
Sales Rank: 166
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.3
ISBN: 031264065X
Dewey Decimal Number: 975.6043092
EAN: 9780312640651
ASIN: 031264065X
Publication Date: January 30, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Features:
| * | ISBN13: 9780312640651 | | * | Condition: NEW | | * | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
“The greatest political saga, the one that has it all, that gets to the real heart of American politics, is the John Edwards story... This isn’t just politics, it’s literature. It’s the great American novel, the kind that isn’t written anymore.” --Michael Wolff on John Edwards's trajectory, on VanityFair.com The underside of modern American politics -- raw ambition, manipulation, and deception -- are revealed in detail by Andrew Young’s riveting account of a presidential hopeful’s meteoric rise and scandalous fall. Like a non-fiction version of All the King’s Men, The Politician offers a truly disturbing, even shocking perspective on the risks taken and tactics employed by a man determined to rule the most powerful nation on earth. Idealistic and ambitious, Andrew Young volunteered for the John Edwards campaign for Senate in 1998 and quickly became the candidate’s right hand man. As the senator became a national star, Young’s responsibilities grew. For a decade he was this politician’s confidant and he was assured he was ‘like family.” In time, however, Young was drawn into a series of questionable assignments that culminated with Edwards asking him to help conceal the Senator’s ongoing adultery. Days before the 2008 presidential primaries began, Young gained international notoriety when he told the world that he was the father of a child being carried by a woman named Rielle Hunter, who was actually the senator’s mistress. While Young began a life on the run, hiding from the press with his family and alleged mistress, John Edwards continued to pursue the presidency and then the Vice Presidency in the future Obama administration. Young had been the senator’s closest aide and most trusted friend. He believed that John Edwards could be a great president, and was assured throughout the cover-up that his boss and friend would ultimately step forward to both tell the truth and protect his aide’s career. Neither promise was kept. Not only a moving personal account of Andrew Young’s political education, THE POLITICIAN offers a look at the trajectory which made John Edwards the ideal Democratic candidate for president, and the hubris which brought him down, leaving his career, his marriage and his dreams in ashes.
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 146
Not A Sport For Kindly People, by Ken Byerly March 10, 2010
Ken Byerly (Jericho, Vermont)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The Politician offers one of the strongest arguments I've seen for public financing of national political campaigns, because it's money and the hubris that follows that separates men from their ideals. This book also illustrates how difficult it would be to introduce public financing and make it work because we see money ooze around almost any barrier and corrupt and cajole.
For a political junkie (I'm one) this book serves up a never ending feast. We meet the flotsam and jetsam of campaigns, the advisers and pollsters who flit from candidate to candidate, always available as long as their fees are paid. We meet the groupies, the hangers on, the journalists stroking controversies, the incumbents choosing sides, and an occasional person who really cares.
There's not many nice people in this book. That's a compliment. Politics is a blood sport and it's refreshing to see it treated as such.
There's sadness here too, a sense of promising men and women gone wrong, a whiff, a forlorn whiff, of what might have been...
ASIN1449025421 Mountain Girl, Paperback
 Disgust aplenty March 10, 2010
Jean M. Walker (USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
As opposed to "Game Change," the "Politician" is an easy and fast read. You won't want to put it down, however you will be so disgusted at the revealed U.S. political scene, you might wish you hadn't read it. And "Saint Elizabeth" definitely falls from grace. Edwards? He falls so far you couldn't locate him with GPS.
ANDREW YOUNG - A MAN WITH A GOOD HEART? March 10, 2010
Bev (Greensboro, NC)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
My daughter and I were in Costco to pick up a few things. On the way to the produce department, we unexpectedly strolled by a table of books. I thumbed through a few and finally decided to purchase "The Politician". My daughter found my choice hysterically funny, as I did. Yet I was curious. We decided to hide my book in the shopping cart under my daughter's James Patterson novel until checking out.
Now that I have finished this book, if I had it to do over again, I would place "The Politician" in the cart on top of James Patterson's novel (nothing against you James). Andrew Young's book is a page-turner everyone should read... Democrats and Republicans alike. We need to know how cold and calculating one can be, how narcissistic and self-promoting one can be. We also need to know consequences of the behaviors demonstrated in this book and why we should learn all we can about people we select to lead our country. Some of us learn from our mistakes ... some of us do not. While reading this book, I think that Andrew Young was completely candid while speaking directly to me, the reader. He took responsibility for what he did. Of course, he had to if he was going to write such devastating truths.
This book reads like a novel and could be placed on any shelf ---- biography, travel, mystery, suspense, psychology, and romance. It includes it all. Add "horror" to the list.
"When God shuts a door, he always opens a window." If everything written in this book is true, Andrew Young can thank Elizabeth and John Edwards for showing Young his way to truth, morality, and love. Certainly, no human being is all bad, but it is a nightmare in reality learning (from this read) the contrast of Edwards's little interest in the American people and his great interest in himself. He obviously has gone to every length, at the expense of the American people and his very own precious child that he denied was his, to keep himself on a pedestal. God bless each one of his children... especially his newborn. Can you imagine coming into this world with one of your parents choosing not to claim you?
 If you saw him on Oprah, no need to read the book.... March 10, 2010
HM (Pennsylvania)
This book was written well, but I learned nothing new since I had already heard him on the radio and saw him on Oprah. All the spoilers were revealed then! Oh well.
Good View of Politics from the Inside March 10, 2010
H. D. Martin (Locust, NC USA)
This book gives a good view of the types of things that likely go on inside many political campaigns, things that I have long suspected but had no confirmation of. The book is well written as a political saga, and the author appears to be open and honest, admitting mistakes made along the way and in his reasons for writing the book.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 146
|
|
|
CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON SERVICES LLC. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’ AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME. Powered by Brains[0][1] | |
