Sorry, It's Another Recall Post

If you haven't seen it yet, read Michael Lewis' article on the California recall from yesterday's New York Times -- it's the best piece I've seen on the subject so far, bar none.

Comments

[Adam Soudure]

I'd like to second Dave's recommendation of Moneyball. It's a fascinating read. Can't wait to see how the A's do in the playoffs...

[Andrew]

Jesse -- just read your review of "Trail Fever/Losers.' (Incidentally, Lewis was absoultely write to junk the publisher's original title for the paperback edition.) You captured the essence of the book in just seven paragraphs. Nicely done. I also loved the back-handed reference to 'Boys on the Bus,' even though I enjoyed that book more than you apparently did.

[Jesse Walker]

Thanks, Andrew. I actually like Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 quite a bit. (I assume that's what you meant to write instead of The Boys on the Bus -- that one was by a different Rolling Stone reporter.) I didn't mean to knock the old New Journalism, just to note how it both paved the way for and differed from another sort of journalism two decades later.

[joe]

Adam,

They're playing the Sox, for whom Lewis did some consulting work in the off-season.

[Matt Welch]

Joe -- Lewis did consulting work for the Sox in the off-season? Really? I hadn't heard that, and I've read a LOT about Lewis vis-a-vis Moneyball (and have a sort post-facto review of it coming out in the December issue of Reason).

[Andrew]

Jesse -- I've read 'Fear and Loathing,' too, but I thought you were referring to 'Boys on the Bus,' another great campaign book. It's a more conventional campaign memoir though, which is why I thought you were contrasting it with Thompson's stuff. Regardless, great review. We share a similar taste in campaign journalism, it seems. Any other recommendations?

[Jesse Walker]

Oh, right -- the bit about "the stiff pieces filed by the boys on the bus." If I recall correctly, The Boys on the Bus was largely about those boys on the bus, but was rather colorful and insightful itself. So I didn't intend to put the book down.

As far as related recommendations go: It's not exactly the same thing, but every time I stumble on the Robert Redford movie The Candidate while I'm channel-surfing I end up watching it to the end.

[Andrew]

Lewis has a flair for making the longshot, fringe candidates look interesting. His book "Losers," about the 1996 Presidential election, is great stuff, much of it in a similar vein. In particular, he focuses a lot of attention on the candidate who was a tire company executive from Michigan nicknamed "the Grizz."

[Jesse Walker]

That's a great book, Andrew. I wrote a brief review of it back when it was called Trail Fever:

http://www.theamericanenterprise.org/issues/articleid.16142/article_detail.asp

[Dave Straub]

I'd like to chime in and plug Lewis' most recent book, Moneyball, about the construction of the low-payroll mini-dynasty known as the current Oakland Athletics.

[Tommy_Grand]

Good article. But the line: "Like just about everyone else, I assumed that the recall had been the work of crackpots" smacks of NYT disease.

[nm156]

Is Moneyball the book that gets into the whole sabremetrics thing? If so, I'll have to get it. JP Ricciardi runs the Blue Jays and is trying to do the same things as the A's. They may not be much over .500, but at least this year they were interesting to watch.

[Eric Pobirs]

As pointed out on the Corner, Lewis is way off in calling the state deficit unavoidable. THe fact is they put spending more than 11 percent ahead of revenues. Even if the dot.com bubble hadn't burst we'd still be facing a seriously out of control budget.

Likewise, those who try to blame the tech bubble are every bit as much bozos as those spendthrift legislators. It is the responsibility of such officials to plan for the worst rather than behave like the good time will never end and can only get better.