I went through this book like a buzzsaw through a piece of wood. It helps that I love Hunter S. Thompson to begin with- I love his style, his meandering prose, his blending and blurring of fact and fiction, his general drug-taking, booze drinking hedonistic lifestyle that just seems like a hurricane of insane... fun. Not that I'm saying I'd be OK with taking large amounts of narcotics these days, but had I been around back in the 70s, I have a feeling I would have been growing long, shaggy, 'Dazed and Confused' like hair and smoking copious amounts of ganja. I mean, what else was there to do in the 70s?
But, back to the book: basically Thompson hit the campaign trail and followed South Dakota Senator George McGovern through the long, arduous slog of the Democratic Primaries through the convention in Miami and all the way to an epic beatdown at the hands of Richard Nixon- who was re-elected and then promptly impaled himself on the Watergate Scandal two years later. Looking at the bulk of Thompson's analysis, it seems that McGovern ran initially as an anti-establishment politician a sort of anti-politician Washington outsider who gained a lot of strength in the early primaries because people brought into the notion that he could actually affect real change in the country. (Weird how history repeats itself, isn't it- sounds a lot like our current President, doesn't it?)
Unfortunately, that image was shattered by the Democratic National Convention in Miami. McGovern went into with a problem: he had won by beating up the party establishment, unfortunately, the perception was that he couldn't win without their support. This perception turned out to be correct in the end, because Humphrey-Muskie-Daley-Party Bosses crowd essentially sat on their hands and didn't lift a finger to help McGovern. There was a further contradiction to be found here, because by seeking the support of the party old guard, McGovern destroyed his image as a Washington outsider, anti-establishment politician- after that people just saw him as a typical politician. Throw in the fact that Convention floor wrangling meant that he delivered his acceptance speech at 3 AM and that he picked an establishment Senator, Tom Eagleton of Missouri as his running mate who had been hospitalized for depression and undergone shock therapy treatment imploded in his face and Eagleton had to be replaced on the ticket.
Pretty much, McGovern looked like he might have something going up until the '72 Convention and then it all fell apart- in a big hurry and in a big way.
Thompson brings his usual mania to the proceedings and if there was one thing that I was curious about during the reading of this book, it was just how much of it was true and how much of it was completely made up- by the author. I know the rumor that candidate Ed Muskie was on ibogaine actually got some play in the press during the campaign- and it was also totally and utterly made up. Whether Thompson did give his press credentials to a friend of a friend who got wasted off his ass and caused chaos on Muskie's somewhat boring whistlestop train tour of Florida are questions that might be worthy of greater investigation. I don't think it matters really... Thompson makes it interesting. Whether you want to call this non-fiction, total fiction, weird memoir or some kind of metafiction I think it ranks as probably the most interesting, informative, ultimately revealing portrait of a modern presidential campaign that I've ever read.
Overall: Not as good as 'Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas'- though what could be? Dr. Gonzo turns his manic gaze upon the down and dirty world of Presidential politics and produces a wild, wonderful journey through the 1972 campaign. A must have for any true political junkie. Like me.
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