The Selling of the President: The Classical Account of the Packaging of a Candidate

The Selling of the President is the enduring story of the 1968 campaign that wrote the script for modern Presidential politicking€"and how that script came to be. It introduces:

• Harry Treleaven, the first adman to suggest that issues bore voters, that image is what counts
• Roger Ailes, a PR man who coordinated the TV presentations that delivered the product
• Frank Shakespeare, the man behind the whole campaign, who, after eighteen years at CBS, cast the image that sold America a President
• And the candidate, Richard Nixon himself€"a politician running on television for the highest office in the land

In his introduction, Joe McGinniss discusses why€"unfortunately€"his classic book is as pertinent today to understanding our political culture as it was the year it was published.