JACK GERMOND has been a political columnist for the Baltimore Sun, the Gannett bureau chief in Washington, and a columnist and editor for the late Washington Star. He first appeared on Meet the Press in 1972 and has been a regular on the Today show, CNN, and The McLaughlin Group. He now serves as a panelist on Inside Washington and writes occasional newspaper pieces. He lives in Charles Town, West Virginia.
Germond (Fat Man in the Middle Seat: Forty Years of Covering Politics), the curmudgeon in chief of political commentators, offers a gloomy portrayal of U.S. politics. Although he rails against the standard concerns-media-staged presidential campaigns, celebrity- instead of issue-oriented news coverage, the chokehold of big money, and an understandably apathetic public-Germond laces his views with barbed and often funny stories. With pundit Jules Witcover, he coauthored four excellent accounts of the 1980-92 presidential campaigns, from which many of the tales included here are drawn. Germond does not spare the object of his scorn, whether it be the reign of "gotcha" politics, in which the media lusts after sensational stories about the candidates; the inadequacy of Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush; or the negative role race plays in both the Republican and the Democratic Parties. While the author believes that voters can be reenergized by candidates who run on their records rather than on packaged images, he holds faint hope that this will happen. Strongly recommended for public libraries.-Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Tackling everything from empty campaign rituals and deceptive TV ads to misleading polls and shallow news coverage, rotund political pundit Germond (Fat Man in a Middle Seat) holds forth on political ills. Drawing on 50 years in Washington, he traces a pattern of decline in substance, civility and integrity among politicians and those who write about them, and spares no one, including voters. Most of Germond's observations are conventional: diatribes against slanted polling techniques, campaign coverage driven by sound bites, media feeding frenzies in response to minor gaffes by politicians, and the overweening power of money to influence elections. But Germond buttresses his arguments with a rich trove of anecdotes, the best of which are drawn from his reporting experiences, as when vice-presidential candidate Lloyd Bentsen's wife called Germond to complain that a pointed question as to whether Bentsen owned a foreign car "had cost me my Mercedes." Germond is especially caustic about the issue of race, on which he faults both parties for evasion and dishonesty. He devotes a few pages to possible remedies, such as rescheduling the presidential primary races to provide more time for reflection by the voters, but frankly concludes that none of his ideas is likely to be enacted. The book thus ends up less a cri de coeur than an agitated shrug. Agent, David Black of the Black Literary Agency Inc. 6-city author tour. (On sale July 6) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
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