cover image The Making of an Ink-Stained Wretch: Half a Century Pounding the Political Beat

The Making of an Ink-Stained Wretch: Half a Century Pounding the Political Beat

Jules Witcover. Johns Hopkins University Press, $35 (343pp) ISBN 978-0-8018-8247-0

Almost every human foible has been displayed at some point during the past half century of presidential campaigning. Candidates have lied, cheated and stolen, they've fallen (both literally and figuratively), been shot at, gone batty and been caught in various compromising positions. As a political reporter and columnist, Witcover is one of a select few who has seen it all. An inquisitive mind with an innate interest for the competitiveness of national politics, he followed every presidential campaign from the contest between Kennedy and Nixon in 1960 to the battle between Bush and Kerry in 2004. Along the way, he engaged some of the century's most notable politicians, accumulating a treasure trove of political anecdotes chronologically presented in this impressive career memoir, portraying with equal objectivity both the winners and those who lost their presidential bid, though it's the latter that prove to be most interesting. With the notable exception of George W. Bush (""the worst and most dangerous president of my lifetime""), Witcover shies away from overt indictments, instead treating even those candidates whose politics or personalities he despised with a measure of respect. Their foibles, after all, were the breadcrumbs of his career.