Review of "The Path to the Presidency," the Concord Monitor

Review of

The Path to the Presidency, the Concord Monitor ISBN 9781597256148


Five out of five stars

 Due to their being the earliest in the sequence of events leading to the selection of the next American president, Iowa (population 3.1 million) and New Hampshire (population 1.4 million), have an outsize influence on who that person will be. In those states, any person with a desire to see a particular candidate will almost certainly have the opportunity.

 Going back to the 1960 presidential election, this book contains a set of photos of the candidates taken by press members of the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire. While most of them are posed and carefully set up, there are some that are completely unscripted and genuine. There are snowballs flying, a candidate checking his teeth in the mirror, sampling of the food in a local diner and lots of smiles, both genuine and somewhat forced.

 My favorite is one of John Kerry talking to a high school class in 2003 and the photo contains the back of a student where his shirt has the phrase, “You’re mouth keeps moving but all I hear is ‘Blah, blah, blah.” It was supposedly unplanned, but it is a photo for the archives of political amusement.  

 There is method to the seeming political madness of the caucuses and primaries, the end result has the highest possible outcome. Therefore, the insights found in this book have value in any attempt to understand and control the outcome.