Quest for the Presidency 1992

A team of Newsweek reporters virtually lived with the 1992 presidential candidates for more than a year, tracking their respective campaigns. Full of revelations and witty turns of phrase, this crackling report provides a unique window on the contenders' maneuverings, pressures and frustrations. Hillary Clinton, we are told, in effect became her husband's closest campaign adviser, while his handlers systematically devised a rationale for his directionless candidacy, equipping him with a populist message. Bush, a reluctant campaigner who hated confrontations, by this account wanted Quayle off the ticket but could not bring himself to dump the Vice President. Meanwhile, a Bush adviser secretly approached Colin Powell to persuade the general to become Bush's running mate. Led by team anchor DeFrank (Newsweek's deputy Washington bureau chief and senior White House correspondent), the authors do a good job of explaining how Ross Perot tapped into the public's sense of alienation by packaging himself as a pragmatist who could take on bureaucrats and cure the nation's ills through sound business sense. Withering profiles of Jerry Brown, Patrick Buchanan, Paul Tsongas and other contenders round out the chronicle. An appendix reproduces dozens of confidential memoranda and documents from the various campaigns. Photos. 25,000 first printing. (Nov.)