The Right Stuff
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist Richard Ben Cramer
Discusses What lt Takes to Get to the White House

Eric H. Roth
While conventional-wisdom brokers and electoral-college bean counters are beginning to predict a Bill Clinton victory, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Ben Cramer dares to dissent. "People have always underestimated Bush, but he can be ferocious," says Cramer.

"I put no stock in the polls. Bush will come more and more to the attack because he really believes Clinton should not be president of the United States.

"It's still either guy's race to win if they articulate a few big ideas," continues Cramer, author of the critically praised What It Takes: The Way to the White House, a 1046-page tome on the 1988 presidential race. "The presidential vote is the most personal choice each voter makes. We need to connect with a candidate on a visceral level because we remember years as the Age of Reagan, Age of Bush, Age of Kennedy, and so on."

Consequently, the 1992 presidential election, like all recent presidential elections will be "all about character," according to Cramer. "Who are these guys? What are they like? What makes them tick? Why do they believe they ought to be the most powerful man in America? Where did that peculiar notion come from?"

Already hailed as a "bonafide American epic." What It Takes combines a novelist's style with a historian's attention to detail, providing an intimate glimpse into how candidates feel while running for president. Comparable perhaps to Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff, Cramer's book explores how six ambitious men became convinced they should, could, and would become leader of the most powerful government in the world.

"A remarkable thing happens when men start to think of themselves as president," says Cramer. "It changes their entire lives. Their old ones will not suffice."

Starting in 1986. Cramer intensely researched the lives of then-Vice President George Bush, Senate Republican leader Bob Dole, former Senator Gary Hart, Congressman Richard Gephardt, Senator Joe Biden, and Governor Michael Dukakis. Cramer attempted to include Reverend Jesse Jackson, previously considered a protest candidate, after his Michigan primary victory, but Jackson wasn't willing to open himself up fully. "Given his importance in the black community, layers and layers of my-thology have been built around him over the years," says Cramer, explaining the need to probe deeply into who Jackson really is.

"I have tried to tell their stories in two ways—as fairly as I could from the outside, and as emphatically as I could from behind their eyes," writes Cramer. After writing for six years and interviewing over 1,000 people, Cramer has managed to craft extremely personal accounts of critical moments throughout the candidates' lives. In What It Takes, Cramer frequently writes as if he is the candidates, allowing readers to imagine what it feels like to run and stumble toward the White House.
Cramer. a self-described "method"

journalist, knows his subjects. "I know their dogs and their dead dogs," jokes Cramer. "I fell in love with every one of these guys. That doesn't mean I don't judge them harshly, but I go to sleep with their thoughts in my head. They are my subjects, and they are in my life."

Consequently, Cramer, who contributes to a number of publications including Esquire and Rolling Stone, has nothing but disdain for the superficial approach of political reporters who reduce "character" to a simplistic list of "thou shall not's" and isolated facts about a candidate's life. Furthermore, Cramer believes that the "dangerous fallacy" that Americans "have a right to know everything about their leaders" is responsible for the de-struction of Gary Hart's campaign and denying the country an out-standing president.

“ He [Hart] would not concede that his life was our chattel," observes Cramer. "Hart's brilliant. I think he's the smartest guy I've ever met." Many journalists, however, felt in-timidated by Hart and resented his original thinking. "He made them feel stupid," says Cramer. He tells the story of how the press would bombard Hart with personal ques-tions about changing his name from Hartpence. In response, Hart asked, "Anyone want to talk about ideas?" The "karacter kops" and "diddy bops" eventually destroyed Hart, the only candidate in 1988 with a real plan, in Cramer's opinion. "Dole would do whatever came up and Bush would do whatever he thought was sound. Gephardt had only a dim idea of what the job was. Dukakis was just going to be the national governor. Joe Biden saw himself at the head of a great people. but I don't think he knew what he actually wanted to do." Hart, in con-trast, had already held detailed dis-cussions with Mikhail Gorbachev on nuclear disarmament and shifting both nations' economic priorities.
In Cramer's view, the long, nasty, and highly stressful campaign be-comes a "national blood roar" where the strongest, not the sanest, triumph. "We, the people, want a national blood bath," states Cramer. "We want a man who will give his everything to us—including his family. We want a killer."

Bush, according to Cramer. un-derstands that this "primordial need" and "tribal ritual" require a "war chief to "destroy his enemies." "Bush's sense of duty brings out his warrior side that's vicious," continues Cramer. "He will do anything to win." Bush admitted as much in an interview with David Frost, saying that "he would do anything whatever it took" to win re-election, and Cramer takes the president at his word.

"It wasn't an accident that Bush was appointed director of the CIA," adds Cramer. "Secrets are his mi- lieu. This was a case of a job finding the right man." Bush, says Cramer, has always known the importance of secrecy going all the way back to his childhood. Bush's strong sense of patriotism and duty, however, leads Cramer to believe that Bush could never participate in any plot, like the rumored October Surprise, that would needlessly harm American servicemen."I would be shocked to the bottom of my heart," says Cramer. "It's just not in him.

"The most revealing line Bush gave during his acceptance speech. one most of the media completely missed, was [when] he said something like, 'I come from a generation where patriotism was a duty, not just another lifestyle option,' continues Cramer, noting that Bush was the Navy's youngest pilot in World War II and a decorated war hero. "He really believes a draft dodger should not be a commander-in-chief."

The character issue, often seen as a plus for Bush, doesn't necessarily hurt Clinton, says Cramer. "They the karacter kops threw every-thing at Clinton, and he survived," notes Cramer. "Yet he had Hart's experience, and it worked doubly to Clinton's advantage.

"First. Clinton had a line of de-fense ready," notes Cramer. "Sec-ond, the press knew the 'scandal' frenzy couldn't be stopped. Everybody started immediately wringing their hands." Nevertheless, says Cramer, the so-called womanizing issue still could come back to haunt Clinton, who thus far has proved remarkably resilient.

"Clinton has marched through the shitstorm, and shown his determi-nation," continues Cramer. "He believes he offers something unique to the country, and something the country desperately needs." Clinton's conviction, and a bad economy, make him a compelling and strong candidate.

"Clinton's best argument is focus-ing on three simple things." adds Cramer. "People are sleeping in the streets, our schools are decaying, our health care system is collapsing, our workers need retraining, and the environment needs saving. The second point is that there is really no. argument about what needs to be done. A consensus exists. Third, Bush has failed to do what needs to be done."

The widespread sense of dissatisfaction can be seen in the success of former California Governor Jerry Brown's and billionaire businessman Ross Perot's anti-establishment campaigns. "Perot is the flower of the system." Continues Cramer. "Perot was greeted like a potential messiah because he talked like one of us. and wasn't a politician. He vaulted to the top."

The turning point for Perot, according to Cramer, came when he hired "men in suits" to advise, run. and manage his "populist" campaign. "They started telling him what he could, and what he couldn't, say. He began to sound just like a traditional politician.

"A guy with $3 billion isn't used to getting picked on. and presidential candidates get picked on sixteen hours a day." notes Cramer. Further. Perot, who promoted himself as an outsider and anti-politician, expressed contempt for the electoral system and the election rituals that traditional candidates followed. Perot, who insisted his wife be called Mrs. Ross Perot, also wanted a blanket of privacy around his personal life.

"Yet we demand totality." says Cramer. "The presidency is so tough that we won't allow any candidate to put anything else before us—not his family, not his religion, and not his marriage. We want it all.

"Perot got a good look at life inside that bubble, and decided to walk away," observes Cramer. Perot's on. off. and maybe on again campaign for presidency clearly vi-olates the public's expectations of a "committed" candidate. "I have no idea what Perot is thinking." says Cramer. "He can't come back as a serious candidate who hopes to win this election."

Cramer, however, sees some possibility that Perot, like Reagan and Bush, might be able to come back eventually if seeking the presidency becomes an all-consuming quest. "If he wants to win in '96, then he should help Clinton win and patiently build an organization be-cause his base remains basically Republican."

So who does Cramer, at the end of the day, think will win the 1992 presidential election? "Every adult in the country knows instinctively: that job in the White House is brutal, and the bastard who gets it works for us." concludes Cramer. "The Amer-ican people, like most employers, will usually give the job to the guy who wants it the most."

Back to top