The Bully Pulpit

The Bully Pulpit by Andrew Goldblatt. A Bantam/Turner book, July 1992. 305 pp.

In U.S. $4.99

In Canada $5.99

ISBN: 0-553-29906-9

Published simultaneously in the United States and Canada.

Cover by Keith Batcheller.

Printed in the United States of America.

"It's sixteen years from today and the Democrats still haven't won a presidential election. . . .

Jack Morgan is the next Democratic candidate. He's a man of down-to-earth midwestern charm, a war hero and successful businessman. He's also a womanizer who has had more than sixty affairs during his first term in the Senate, and a chronic depressive who is the wild card in his own election campaign.

At the urging of his press secretary, Morgan decides to campaign on a radical environmental platform. Forsaking the media blitz of the campaign trail, eschewing the fifteen-second sound bite, Morgan sits at home on his front porch in Ohio and talks to the press and public about the issues.

He doesn't have a prayer of winning.

He's the Democratic Party's greatest hope."

"This story is set in the future merely to allay suspicions the characters are based on current public officials, their families, or their staffers. It can happen much sooner, if you want it."

This is a nicely-timed re-read on my part. The presidential candidate in this work of fiction is, among other things, a survivor of the 1983 Beirut Marine Barracks terrorist bombing attack. That was nearly a decade before this book was written, a book which looks ahead to the 2008 presidential election.