Devoid of Authenticity

Say this for Joe KIein's latest work - you will rarely encounter a book that mixes so many funny and revealing stories of past presidential campaigns with such an utterly wrongheaded premise.

Mr. Klein, a columnist for Time and once-anonymous author of the Clinton-era novel "Primary Colors," has soured on today's political scene, and he diagnoses political consultants as the malady in "Politics Lost : How American Democracy Was Trivialized By People Who Think You're Stupid" (Doubleday, 272 pages, $23.95).

Mr. Klein - who's refreshingly honest about his left-of-center political preferences - contends that his gripe is with campaign consultants in general, whom he accuses of ruining candidates of both parties by watering them down and suppressing their true natures and authenticity. He yearns for candidates who will break free of the chains of the focus groups and image gurus and throw caution to the wind and let fly their true spirits, who can go all the way to Washington D.C. to take back the White House and... yearrrrrgh! Sorry, I felt the urge to let loose with a Governor Dean scream right there, to quote one of the moments of pure, unvarnished true spirit that the voters rejected in recent years.

After years of interviewing and palling around with Senator Kerry and Vice President Gore, Mr. Klein believes that if the voters just saw these guys the way he does, they would appreciate them, warts and all. He acknowledges but downplays the flaws seen in recent campaigns, such as Vice President Gore's patronizing tone and instinctive nastiness and Senator Kerry's torrid romance with the sound of his own voice. You begin to wonder, however, if those repellent traits aren't part of the "authenticity" Mr. Klein covets.

Instead, the worst flaws of recent Democratic campaigns are attributed to nefarious consultants who attain the status of voodoo spirits, capable of assuming complete control of the helpless candidate and suppressing their good nature.

Mr. Klein offers some examples of his "authentic" rhetorical ideal: Robert Kennedy's off-the-cuff mournful address to a black audience in Indianapolis after Martin Luther King's assassination and Harry S. Truman's offhand reference to rural Missouri's "Turnip Day." But we have equally authentic moments today.To fans of President Bush, his most authentic moment is his bullhorn address beside fireman Bob Beckwith at Ground Zero in 2001. To his critics, it's probably his landing on the aircraft carrier in 2003. One can be reminded of Senator McCain's face-off with Michael Moore at the 2004 GOP convention, or Mayor Giuliani's devastatingly honest "it will be more than we can bear" response to an inquiry about casualties of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

It just happens that some of the most "authentic" moments for Democrats in recent years haven't been flattering ones - and it goes beyond the Dean scream. When Senator Kerry insistently said, "I actually voted for the $87 billion - before I voted against it," he wasn't confused or indecisive; in Senator Kerry's head that was a perfectly rational and persuasive argument.

Mr. Klein's gripes aren't really with campaigns he finds boring. He doesn't spend a lot of time critiquing Karl Rove, Ed Gillespie, Ken Mehlman, Dick Wadhams, or other successful Republican strategists. No, Mr. Klein gets most fired up and passionate when denouncing veteran Democratic campaign strategist Bob Shrum.

Mr. Shrum lives up to his reputation as the Chicago Cubs of consultants (a rare 0 for 8 at the presidential level). He skillfully nurtured Vice President Gore's alienating anger in 2000 and Senator Kerry's paralyzing sense of caution in 2004, to the ultimate detriment of their campaigns. Mr. Klein's biggest bone to pick with Mr. Shrum is that, in the end, his Democratic clients lose.

Mr. Klein's accounts of the infighting among Senator Kerry's consultants are fascinating inside baseball for political geeks. In 2004, Mr. Klein reports, the first post-September 11 presidential election and amid the war in Iraq, a campaign adviser to Senator Edwards tells Mr. Klein that voters "don't care" about foreign policy.We also learn that in August 2004 President Clinton told Senator Kerry, "if you say one more word about Vietnam, I'll vote for George G-damn Bush."

Perhaps the classic tale comes from the 2004 Democratic convention, where Teresa Heinz Kerry rejected traditional procedure. We see it in every campaign: After the nominee finishes his acceptance speech, the running mate comes out and raises his hands in triumph with the presidential candidate, then the two men are joined by their families and the balloons drop. But in Boston, Mrs. Kerry vehemently objected to entering after Senator Edwards and announced her intention to precede him. We learn in "Politics Lost" that an aide to Senator Kerry had to stand in front of Mrs. Kerry to block her path to the stage and then yelled to Senator Edwards, "Run!"

Mr. Klein may be too fond of recent Democratic presidential aspirants and may too easily believe that his preferences mirror the country's preferences, but he's a delightful storyteller and always a must-read observer of the political scene.

Mr. Geraghty is a contributing editor at National Review.