One of my favorite people is Michal Barone the political commentator and the author of the respected "Almanac of American Politics." I bought my first edition I think in 1980. He knows every Congressional District in the United States. Often before I go on trips I will read his descriptions of the Congressional Districts I am visiting because his description of the towns is better and more truthful than any travel book. There is no one better at reading election results and projecting winners. He started out as a liberal but as time has gone on he has personally become more conservative. He is a frequent commentator on FOX NEWS. There is no political junkie I respect more.
Today's column gives a tour through his political life and his love of politics. It is well worth a read. It starts out:
My campaign and election memories go back to 1960, when I was one of the few who backed John Kennedy at an election night party that my parents were throwing.(To read the rest of the column click on the title for a link)
The early broadcasts had him winning big (they extrapolated that his gains in heavily Roman Catholic Connecticut would be matched across the mostly Protestant country), and I was too young to stay up for the dramatic conclusion.
Two years later, as a freshman at Harvard, I went into Boston and saw a fresh-faced Edward Kennedy on the night of his Senate primary victory. In 1965, I ventured to New York to report for the Harvard Crimson on the race for mayor of New York. At John Lindsay's election night headquarters, I urged the guard to let novelist Norman Mailer into the press and VIP section at the front of the room (maybe not the right judgment).
I have many memories of campaigns, too --
Barone ends his column writing about William White's campaign books the first of which was.... "The Making of the President 1960". I read them all.
I loved the books and White did see the nobility of American politics.
