Texas Hold 'Em - Hardcover

Stevens

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743222903 ISBN 13: 9780743222907

Publisher: The Free Press, 2001

Synopsis

Six years ago he owned a baseball team. Now he's the leader of the free world. "The Big Enchilada" is a comic anthem to the wild and improbable crusade that propelled George W. Bush into the White House and to the close-knit group of Texans who made it happen, written by "the Bush campaign's Renaissance man" "(Time" magazine). Writer and political strategist Stuart Stevens has been hailed by Martin Amis as "the perfect companion: brave, funny, and ever-watchful," and "The New Yorker" has praised him for having "a wonderful eye for the curiosities of human behavior." Here he tells the surprisingly funny, adrenaline-fueled story of the Bush campaign the public never saw -- from the Austin coffee shop where Stevens watched Karl Rove sketch out the Republican master plan on a napkin to the small Methodist church in Crawford, Texas, where the blue-jeaned future president prepared for the make-or-break debates that no one expected him to win. He offers the inside view of the rise and flameout of maverick John McCain; the struggle to come up with a message that could be heard over a booming economy ("Times have never been better. Vote for change," campaign aides joked); and the fierce debates over the upside and downside of "going negative" against a vulnerable adversary. Above all, Stevens turns the familiar political tale of disillusionment on its head. From the moment he arrived in Austin to join the campaign -- "Stevens, get in here and let's bond!" the governor said -- he discovered the peculiar pleasure of working with people who not only respected and admired their candidate but actually "liked" him. They faced formidable obstacles, from a nation surfing a vast wave of peaceand prosperity to an experienced opponent whose seasoned advisers bragged that the campaign would be "a slaughterhouse." But Texans, as Stevens learned, are a confident bunch, and the Bush crowd remained convinced they would win the biggest prize of all -- even on the brink of losing. This is the story of what it was like as only an insider could tell it.

About this title

Review:

"The New Yorker" Stevens has a wonderful eye for the curiosities of human behavior.

About the Author:

Born in Jackson, Mississippi, Stuart Stevens is both a writer and a political strategist. He is the author of four previous books, including Malaria Dreams and Feeding Frenzy, as well as of some of the earliest episodes of the critically acclaimed television series I'll Fly Away and the Emmy award-winning Northern Exposure. His articles and essays have appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Outside, Esquire, The New Republic, and elsewhere. Over the past eighteen years he has also helped to elect dozens of governors and senators, as well as international clients, such as Vaclav Havel of Czechoslovakia. He lives in New York City and Stowe, Vermont.

About this edition

• Publisher: The Free Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0743222903
• ISBN 13: 9780743222907
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320