Volume 54, Number 4 · March 15, 2007
The Democrats
By Michael Tomasky
The Way to Win: Taking the White House in 2008
by Mark Halperin and John F. Harris
Random House, 454 pp., $26.95
Positively American: Winning Back the Middle-Class Majority One Family at a Time
by Senator Chuck Schumer, with Daniel Squadron
Rodale, 274 pp., $24.95
The Plan: Big Ideas for America
by Rahm Emanuel and Bruce Reed
PublicAffairs, 205 pp., $19.95
Take It Back: A Battle Plan for Democratic Victory
by James Carville and Paul Begala
Simon and Schuster, 352 pp., $14.00 (paper)
The Moral Center: How We Can Reclaim Our Country from Die-Hard Extremists, Rogue Corporations, Hollywood Hacks, and Pretend Patriots
by David Callahan
Harcourt, 260 pp., $24.00
Blue Grit: True Democrats Take Back Politics from the Politicians
by Laura Flanders
Penguin, 215 pp., $24.95 (to be published in April)
Whistling Past Dixie: How Democrats Can Win Without the South
by Thomas F. Schaller
Simon and Schuster, 336 pp., $26.00
Whatever else happens on January 20, 2009, the date on which, barring impeachment or tragedy, George W. Bush will finally leave office, the day will mark a rather surprising historical fact. As Mark Halperin and John F. Harris point out in their introduction to The Way to Win, it will be the first time since the consecutive administrations of James Madison and James Monroe that 'back-to-back presidents both served all eight years of two elected terms.' Monroe's term ended in 1825. In every era since, death, scandal, political failure, or some other kind of disruption—notably, a broad political shift that ends one era and begins another—has intruded upon the presidential succession process, until now.
Review, 4570 words
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