description: An American Iliad in the guise of contemporary political reportage, What It Takes penetrates the mystery at the heart of all presidential How do presumably ordinary people acquire that mixture of ambition, stamina, and pure shamelessness that makes a true candidate? As he recounts the frenzied course of the 1988 presidential race -- and scours the psyches of contenders from George Bush and Robert Dole to Michael Dukakis and Gary Hart -- Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Richard Ben Cramer comes up with the answers, in a book that is vast, exhaustively researched, exhilarating, and sometimes appalling in its revelations.From the Trade Paperback edition.
language: English
title: What It Takes
titlecomplete: What It Takes
characters: Bob Dole, Michael Dukakis, Joe Biden, Gary Hart, George H. W. Bush, Dick Gephardt
genres: American, History, Presidents, American History, Politics, The United States Of America, Journalism, Biography, Nonfiction, Political Science
ratings_count: 2835
publisher: Random House Value Publishing