What makes you cast your ballot? A Presidential candidate or a good campaign? How he stands on the issues or how he stands up to the camera?
The Selling of the President is the enduring story of the 1968 campaign that wrote the script for modern Presidential politicking—and how that script came to be. It introduces:
Harry Treleaven, the first adman to suggest that issues bore voters, that image is what counts
Roger Ailes, a PR man who coordinated the TV presentations that delivered the product
Frank Shakespeare, the man behind the whole campaign, who, after eighteen years at CBS, cast the image that sold America a President
And the candidate, Richard Nixon himself—a politician running on television for the highest office in the land
In his introduction, Joe McGinniss discusses why—unfortunately—his classic book is as pertinent today to understanding our political culture as it was the year it was published.
Joe McGinniss was a young Philadelphia journalist when he began to follow the team of public relations men and television specialists who created Richard Nixon’s image for the American public during the presidential campaign of 1968. In 1969, with the publication… More about Joe McGinniss
