Off Script

February 15, 2016
How the methods of show business took over presidential election campaigns--and how political candidates have paid the price. Public relations executive King chronicles the rise and fall of what he calls "the Age of Optics, where playing to the camera and creating compelling imagery forces candidates far from their comfort zones." As a former campaign advance man and director of production for presidential events at the White House, the author knows his material well, and he recounts it with irresistible detail culled from firsthand experience. It all began in 1988, when the Democrats enlisted staff from Hollywood, the Oscars, and the Olympic Games to help stage their convention. Soon, the job categories of movie production--e.g., advance man, staging, site-builders--were swelling the vocabulary of political staffing. Campaign image-making took over because "spectacle sells." Due to public familiarity, advertising techniques provided a framework. The author quotes Republican media consultant Robert Goodman: "[Ads] don't let you decide for yourself what to think. They tell you how to feel." The result has not been friendly to politicians. In 1988, Michael Dukakis tried to enhance the image of his national security credentials with a joy ride on an Army tank. Unfortunately, even the people on his team thought he looked "like a peanut." For the Republicans, it was the gift that kept on giving. King goes on to chronicle other bloopers, including John Kerry's windsurfing break, Howard Dean's scream, and George W. Bush's "Mission Accomplished" banner. As the author notes, many candidates have fallen prey to the "fateful actions and decisions of staff...[that] will occupy a place in the politician's eventual obituary." What happens in front of the camera is fair game, and it has become all too easy to tell politicians to do or say anything at any given time. An eye-opening trip behind the political scene demonstrating how showbiz helped money wreck our political landscape. If you enjoy the TV show Veep, you'll enjoy this book.

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Starred review from April 1, 2016

Although accounts of political campaigns by higher-level aides abound, few have been written by advance men or women, grunts who, according to King, have two goals: "make their candidate look good on camera, and don't piss off the locals." The author, President Bill Clinton's director of production for events and the founder of SiriusXM radio show Polioptics, spent nearly three decades in this political sauna and here shares his experiences about what happened when advance work went right and wrong, during what he calls the "Age of Optics" (1988-2004), an era when camera shots could make or break a candidate. Though the period ended with Barack Obama's 2008 "vanilla presidency," in which political imagery no longer relied on cameras but on tightly controlled social media, the author concludes that the 2016 election might usher in a new age that shares the limelight with social media. VERDICT King presents one of the liveliest and funniest political books of recent years; it will keep political junkies and campaign professionals guffawing and learning. He has done for advance men and women what Timothy Crouse's The Boys on the Bus did for print journalists almost a half-century ago. His book pairs nicely with David Greenberg's scholarly Republic of Spin. [See Prepub Alert, 10/26/15.]--Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA

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