I picked this book up because someone recommended a book by somebody else. That's how it works sometimes. I was planning to read Tim Crouse's "The Boys on the Bus" about the reporters who covered the 1972 presidential campaign when I came across this one instead. Both Crouse and Thompson covered the 1972 campaign for Rolling Stone, and so it made sense to read this when Crouse's book was checked out of the library. This is where I confess that I have never really liked Hunter S. Thompson. A long time ago, I tried reading "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and just couldn't get through more than about 20 pages. I didn't really expect to read more than 20 pages of this book either. I figured I would give it a try and then -- since it's a library book -- just cut my losses when it got too weird. And yet while it did get too weird at times, it still hooked me. I loved reading about McGovern, Muskie, Humphrey, Wallace, and all these other political figures of whom I was only vaguely aware.
I was occasionally on the campaign trail myself this year for the New Hampshire primary, so that's part of the reason the book appealed to me. At one point, Thompson writes about driving from Cambridge to New Hampshire to go to some campaign events. Hey, that's just like what I was doing, I thought. Key difference: He was writing for Rolling Stone, while I was writing for my web site. Also, I didn't have an open bottle of Wild Turkey on my lap while making the drive.
There is even someone in here that I have met. That would be Missouri Senator Thomas Eagleton, who was McGovern's vice-presidential pick, until it was revealed that Eagleton had been previously treated for nervous exhaustion with electro-shock treatment. Eagleton was later dropped from the ticket and replaced by Sargent Shriver.
I met Eagleton, because after he retired from the Senate in 1987, he went on to be a political science professor at Washington University where I took a course he offered. And, wow, would this ever be a more fascinating entry, if I could remember anything about the course. I think it had something to do with the New Deal, but I'm not quite sure. I do remember one session in which a student actually asked him about the shock therapy and how he thought it affected his career, but I may not have heard his response because I was too busy cringing.
Sadly, from our perspective, the course might as well have been called Political Science 345: Advanced Study of Crazy Ex-Senators Who Might Have Been Vice-President if not for the Electro-Shock Therapy.
At any rate, I seem to have gone off on a tangent, but that's fitting because this whole book is full of tangents. In some ways, Dr.Thompson is blogging here years before blogging even existed, though I'm sure many others have already made that same observation.
Finally, on the long list of things only Hunter S. Thompson could get away with, we can add doing a Q&A with the editor for the end of a book because you were too stoned, drunk, sick, or whatever to finish writing the damn thing. It's an interesting literary technique, having your editor come in to interview you because you can't finish your book. And so most of the last 50 pages read like so:
Ed: Do you have any more to say about this book before we wrap up this entry?
JDL: Not really, though I did like the part about the venerable NBC newsman of my youth John Chancellor being addicted to LSD.
Ed: Is that really true?
JDL: No, I'm pretty sure Thompson made it all up, but I still enjoyed the image of Chancellor on LSD while delivering the news. I was slightly disappointed not to read about Walter Cronkite being addicted to cocaine or something.
Ed: This technique tends to work a lot better when Hunter S. Thompson is doing it, don't you think?
JDL: I would have to say yes.
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