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| How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative | 
 enlarge | Author: Allen Raymond
Creator: Ian Spiegelman
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy New: $4.99
You Save: $20.01 (80%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $4.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  (25 reviews)
Sales Rank: 72073
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2
ISBN: 1416552227
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.132409742
EAN: 9781416552222
ASIN: 1416552227
Publication Date: January 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 I couldn't put this book down March 22, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book was so entertaining - I couldn't wait to find out what happened next. And the author's writing style is amazing - I actually laughed out loud so many times! This book,I believe, is an accurate description of what happens behind the scenes during political campaigns.
Great inside information! March 21, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The book may offer little new information for political junkies that follow these events daily, but is a great introduction to dirty politics for novices. I am definitely going to have my soon-to-be-18 daughter read this so that she can see through the tricks and is not easily manipulated.
Raymond talks very candidly and in great detail about how fraudulent direct mail and phone calls corrupt the electoral process, and how vast amount of money slosh around, saturating and distorting any attempts at actual informed democracy.
A Window into the Sliding Scale of Perdition March 17, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is not a well written book. Raymond should probably have gotten someone else to write it for him. There is too much anger at the Republican Party in the pages, and too much telegraphing, instead of astute foreshadowing. The book is chalk full of hackneyed metaphors and colloquialisms, and has far too much cussing to make this quality literature. If you're going to cuss in writing, you have to be careful. Some writers like Carlos Fuentes can pull it off. But Allen Raymond is no Carlos Fuentes. The book feels like Raymond took his blog and put it into print to make some money.
But this is still a great story. One gets the distinct impression that it will be much better communicated in a film genre than it is in writing. How to Rig an Election is a phenomenal portrait into the slippery slope of evil. Allen Raymond invites us step by step into the hidden underbelly of campaigning. From his first person narrative we gain an appreciation of just how easy it was to convince oneself that what one is doing is permissible, and what is right becomes progressively less important. At first it is small things, part of the political process. But gradually the indiscretions get larger, all the more justified because others are doing it, leaders are teaching it, and frankly, Allen has grown to be an expert in the system, so it therefore must be right. It is horrible to hear how the Republican Party (and to a lesser extent the Democrats) have manipulated the people for their own glory and power. But this is far more a personal story of learning to hate truth, and embrace lies.
Thus the story, if not the writing, becomes truly Shakespearean. Most tragic of all? Though in the introduction Allen indicates he is truly repentant, by the time you reach the end of the novel, you start to realize he is yet, still, gaming the system. And he does not even appear to realize it. The protagonist (the author) has so lost touch with truth and reality that he misinterprets repentance for theatre, and believes everything is now resolved.
C.S. Lewis used to say George MacDonald wasn't the best writer, but he could tell myth like no other. I recommend this book not for the writing, but for the story: a spiritual tragedy of our times.
Don't say you didn't know... February 14, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Of course you kind of know that politics is a dirty business. It's not as if there haven't been enough scandals surrounding politicians, lobbyists, arms dealers, what-have-you ever since the political game was invented. So reading in HOW TO RIG AN ELECTION that people routinely overstep the line when an election needs to be won, and that they do so without any kind of moral qualms (just doing what I'm asked to do...) didn't terribly surprise me. What did surprise me was how much fun it was to read about these, hmm, let's say morally ambiguous characters - so kudos to Allen Raymond and Ian Spiegelman for having delivered a pitch-perfect, real-life satire on contemporary American politics.
 Winning at Any Cost February 13, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
One would hope that the first requirement for any political candidate is honesty. Raymond, however, adds to the sources proving otherwise.
Raymond takes us through his career, beginning with graduate school, running congressional campaigns, becoming chief of staff for a winner (learning that one votes per Gingrich or risks losing committee assignments and campaign funds), moving to RNC staff positions, assisting in Steve Forbes' presidential campaign (contends Forbes was not-aggressive enough to win), and finally running a phone-bank service.
His first reported dirty trick was to twist an opponent's actions, alleging taking a bonus after pink-slipping the staff. The truth was that the staff were temporary summertime counselors, and that the bonus was paid after all other obligations.
During "How to Rig an Election" Raymond utilizes dirty tricks (eg. using an obvious Afro-American voice to send taped "support" calls to discourage white Democrats from voting), helps a candidate recover from dirty tricks, and reveals dislike for Bush '43 ("born on third base and thought he hit a triple") and disdain for voters ("the general public's comprehension is pretty low").
Raymond's political career ends after implementing a request to tie up an opponents' lines used to provide rides to the polls. He's convicted and sent to federal prison, despite viewing himself as a model of cooperation with federal investigators.
Now I'm wondering more and more how seriously candidates take their own promises.
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