Almost President (57 page)

To ascertain Perot's place within the history of American capitalism, consulted were H. W. Brands,
American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism, 1865–1900
(Doubleday, New York and London, 2010), and John Steele Gordon,
An Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power
(HarperCollins, New York, 2004). For information on the rise of talk radio, consulted was Randy Bobbitt,
Us against Them: The Political Culture of Talk Radio
(Lexington Books, Lanham, Md., and Boulder, Colo., 2010).

CHAPTER ELEVEN. AL GORE, JOHN KERRY, AND JOHN McCAIN

Given that all three men, as of this writing, are still in the midst of their public careers, sources for this chapter include a number of newspaper and magazine articles and profiles. However, each man has also been the subject of some fine books.

The profile of Al Gore usually deemed to be the most comprehensive look at the former vice president is Bill Turque,
Inventing Al Gore: A Biography
(Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 2000). Turque, a reporter for
Newsweek
at the time he wrote the book, does a particularly fine job exploring the way Gore was groomed by his father specifically to run for president one day with all the psychological baggage that entailed. A serviceable study of Gore is David Maraniss and Ellen Nakashima,
The Prince of Tennessee: The Rise of Al Gore
(Simon and Schuster, New York and London, 2000), which contains some interesting anecdotes. Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair,
Al Gore: A User's Manual
(Verso, London and New York, 2000) is an attack on Gore from the left, questioning even his environmental credentials.

Gore himself, befitting his journalistic background, has authored several books referenced in this chapter, including
Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit
(Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1992);
An Inconvenient Truth: The Crisis of Global Warming
(Viking, New York, 2007); and
The Assault on Reason
(Penguin Press, New York, 2007). The account of the 2000 election that I used as my primary source was Jeffrey Toobin,
Too Close to Call: The Thirty-Six-Day Battle to Decide the 2000 Election
(Random House, New York, 2001). Toobin unravels a complicated situation with clarity and fairness to both parties. The Republican take on the recount can be found in James A. Baker III (with Steve Fiffer), “
Work Hard, Study . . . and Keep Out of Politics!”: Adventures and Lessons from an Unexpected Public Life
(G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 2006). An entertaining overview of the 2000 election controversy is the HBO film
Recount
, available on DVD through HBO Video [2008].

The most comprehensive and fair account of Kerry's life and career (at least up through 2004) seems to be Michael Kranish, Brian C. Mooney, and Nina J. Easton,
John F. Kerry: The Complete Biography by the
Boston Globe
Reporters Who Know Him Best
(Public Affairs, New York, 2004). The book offers probably the fullest and fairest explanation of Kerry's war record that we are likely to find. What should be the definitive study of Kerry's service by a highly regarded historian, Douglas Brinkley,
Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War
(William Morrow, New York, 2004), has correctly been labeled a little too laudatory and, while beautifully written, contained so many initial factual errors that the publisher had to issue a revised edition. Kerry's own obligatory campaign tome,
A Call to Service
(Viking, New York, 2003), is, as most such books are, not very illuminating.

John McCain has a fine co-author, longtime aide Mark Salter. Their best collaboration is
Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir
(Random House, New York, 1999), which covers not only his father's and grandfather's military career, but also his own through his release from captivity in 1973. The McCain who once rode the “Straight Talk Express” is especially evident in
Worth the Fighting For: A Memoir
(Random House, New York, 2002). Two studies of McCain worth reading are Elizabeth Drew,
Citizen McCain
(Simon and Schuster, New York, 2002), and Robert Timberg,
John McCain: An American Odyssey
(Simon and Schuster, New York, 1999). Both are laudatory portraits. Drew has long been one of the most respected political reporters in Washington, but in this book she incorrectly predicts that McCain has forever abandoned conservative dogma and become a true centrist. Perhaps he will, but 2010 and 2011 have scuttled that prediction for now. Timberg is a U.S. Naval Academy graduate who wrote another fine book that follows a group of academy graduates, including McCain, through their careers in Vietnam:
The Nightingale's Song
(Touchstone, New York, 1995). Mark Silva,
McCain: The Essential Guide to the Republican Nominee
(Triumph Books, Chicago, 2008), is a quick knock-off from previous profiles of McCain by the
Chicago Tribune
that provides no real insight but updates us on McCain's career through the early stages of the 2008 election. Two full accounts of the 2008 election consulted were Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson,
The Battle for America 2008: The Story of an Extraordinary Election
(Viking, New York, 2009), and John Heilemann and Mark Halperin,
Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime
(Harper, New York, 2010).