Books in Brief

How to Win an Election, by Stephen C. Shadegg (Taplinger, $5.00). This is not the first “How To” book in the field of political campaigning, but it is by far the best. Mr. Shadegg, who was Barry Goldwater’s campaign manager for the Senate in both 1952 and 1958, has managed or served as a consultant in almost a score of campaigns, many of them at the senatorial level (where, as he warns in Chapter 1, “The minimum [war-chest] required to stage an aggressive campaign in a small state [is] around $200,000”). In short, he knows his onions. Most political managers who do are not the communicative type; but Shadegg is an articulate man, able to organize and present his advice intelligently and with a wealth of apt illustrations from his experience. There are chapters on everything from the campaign manager to opinion polls and direct mail. As might be expected, the author has few illusions. One distinction he drives home is between the genuinely undecided voter and the merely indifferent one. It is the latter,, he insists, that matters most: “The segment of the population which is least interested in politics actually decides the outcome of most elections.” It is a little chilling to think of Mr. Shadegg’s vast knowledge—and especially some of his fiendishly clever ploys—being made so readily available to Bad Guys as well as Good Guys. But the remedy is for all men of good will, with their copies of Shadegg in hand, to wade in and carry the day.

W. A. RUSHER

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How to Win an Election, by Stephen C. Shadegg (Taplinger, $5.00). This is not the first “How To” book in the field of political campaigning, but it is by far the best. Mr. Shadegg, who was Barry Goldwater’s campaign manager for the Senate in both 1952 and 1958, has managed or served as a consultant in almost a score of campaigns, many of them at the senatorial level (where, as he warns in Chapter 1, “The minimum [war-chest] required to stage an aggressive campaign in a small state [is] around $200,000”). In short, he knows his onions. Most political managers who do are not the communicative type; but Shadegg is an articulate man, able to organize and present his advice intelligently and with a wealth of apt illustrations from his experience. There are chapters on everything from the campaign manager to opinion polls and direct mail. As might be expected, the author has few illusions. One distinction he drives home is between the genuinely undecided voter and the merely indifferent one. It is the latter,, he insists, that matters most: “The segment of the population which is least interested in politics actually decides the outcome of most elections.” It is a little chilling to think of Mr. Shadegg’s vast knowledge—and especially some of his fiendishly clever ploys—being made so readily available to Bad Guys as well as Good Guys. But the remedy is for all men of good will, with their copies of Shadegg in hand, to wade in and carry the day.

W. A. RUSHER