Campaign '72: The Managers Speak

by Ernest R. May (Editor), Janet Fraser (Editor)

Overview

In January 1973, for the first time in American history, principal participants in a major election met to discuss the science and the art of campaign strategy: the planning, calculation, contrivance, miscalculation, and mischance that determine what the electorate sees. Here campaign managers, pollsters, and journalists met to compare notes on their techniques and tactics and on their successes and failures as they reviewed the events of the primaries and election:

the poor decisions made in the face of complex state primary laws;

the decline of Muskie and the rise of McGovern;

the significance of issues versus Nixon's image;

the effects of party reform on the Democratic convention;

the credentials fights;

the twists of strategy during the final months of the campaign;

the way the press covered the campaign and how reporters were treated by the various staffs;

the lessons for 1976 drawn by reporters and campaign people.

The straightforward exchanges took place at the Harvard Conference on Campaign Decision-Making. Eighteen key people participated, including those in the campaigns of Nixon, McGovern, Wallace, Muskie, Humphrey, Jackson, and McCloskey. Four political correspondents—David Broder, James Naughton, Al Otten, and James Perry—expertly guided the conversation, probing for additional insights.

The transcript of the conference—oral history at its best—has been carefully edited and makes absorbing reading. Included are brief sketches of the participants, a chronology of major events of the campaign, tables of campaign statistics, and a full index.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674366787
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	02/05/1973
Edition description:	Reprint 2014
Pages:	327
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

May Ernest R. :

Ernest R. May was Charles Warren Professor of History at Harvard Universityand Director of the Intelligence Policy Program at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.Fraser Janet :

Janet Fraser is Assistant Director of the Director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard.

Table of Contents

The Authors

Introduction

Ernest R. May

1. Before the Primaries

2. The Primaries

3. The Conventions

4. The General Election

5. The Press in the Campaign

6. Looking to '76

Appendix A. Some Campaign Dates

Appendix B. Some Campaign Statistics

Index