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.