[.ca] Fear & Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 (ISBN 0446313645)

From Amazon.com:
With the same drug-addled alacrity and jaundiced wit that made Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas a hilarious hit, Hunter S. Thompson turns his savage eye and gonzo heart to the repellent and seductive race for President. He deconstructs the 1972 campaigns of idealist George McGovern and political hack Richard Nixon, ending up with a political vision that is eerily prophetic. A classic!

The Finest Political Journalism Ever Printed:
This is probably my favorite example of political journalism, in that it is informative, insightful, but never dull. I'm not one for long reviews, and I think all that I could say about this book has already been said by the other Amazon.com people. I just wanted to tack five stars onto this book. Thompson's work here and in Hell's Angels probably inspired hundreds of people to become journalists, and I am one of them.

MAYBE THE BEST POLITICAL BOOK EVER WRITTEN:
Hunter Thompson would despise me. I am a conservative Reaganite. I thought Dick Nixon a brilliant President. I think the Lord Jesus Christ saves my soul. Whereas I despise Michael Moore and do not think he speaks the truth, I admire Hunter Thompson, who is probably a lot closer to Moore's politics than mine. It is not just the passage of time that heals divisions, it is more than that. If I were to analyze Hunter's political nostrums, I would probably find much that I know to be wrong, and that Hunter had enough education and knowledge available to him to know it was wrong but he wrote it anyway. Still, whatever visceral reaction I have to Moore I do not have for Hunter. I guess humnor must be why. Hunter is absolutely inconoclastic. He is side-splitting. He never smiles, and his writing has no funniness in it. I picture him writing out of dread and hate, yet it magically transforms itself into laughs when my eyes meet his words and transfer to my brain. Forgive my bad attempt to get into his head and "explain" Hunter. It's all I can do to try. This book is phenomenal. It contains events that are different from any descriptions ever. Others have novelized reality, but nobody splits the difference like Hunter. Hunter's supposed on-scene reportage of Edmund Muskie coming unglued in the New Hampshire snow, Frank Mankiewiczs' furious (drug induced?) ramblings, the one-on-one with Nixon himelf, leaves the reader exhausted in an effort to separate reality from fantasy. Hunter is like the great con man who uses Truth to augment his lies. This is not calling Hunter a liar, it is just an example. The fact that I don't see this as lies is telling, and separates Hunter and his times from the current political climate, in which his spawn, if you will, the likes of Moore and Al Franken, try to make Hunteresque points but leave themselves exposed as obfuscators instead. The answer is that Thompson is just so much better than almost all other writers that he cannot be duplicated or even imitated. To try is pointless. Many, inclduing myself, have tried to be the "next Jim Murray," but like Murray nobody can be Hunter, either. STEVEN TRAVERS(...)

On the trail of McGovern:
For all his gonzo journalism, Thompson has a very keen eye for politics, even if he backed McGovern in '72. This is a very engaging and very insightful study of the McGovern campaign and how, in Thompson's mind, it was the only hope in the miasma of politics at the time. He is unsparing on McGovern's opponents, particularly Humphrey, but saved his scorn for Nixon, whom the Democrats were desperately hoping to unseat. One of the most memorable scenes in the book (whether real or imagined) is when Thompson was called up to talk sports with the President himself on Air Force One. For a moment, Thompson puts down his guard, to engage in Nixon's favorite pastime, football. What you get is a heady mix of politics and humor as only the Grandmaster of Gonzo Journalism can give. The book remains unsurpassed in its candid view of a presidential political campaign.

Greatness:
This book is so interesting. It was really detailed which made it nearly impossible to stop reading. I like how weird and satirical this book was. It would be good to see the movie after reading this book. would make it awesome. its a trip.

George W. Bush is our Richard Nixon:
Does history repeat its self? All I can say is that Hunter wrote this book coming out of the liberal 60's which rounded out in a big bummer with Richard Nixon winning. The election in'72 was in a sense for all the marbles as it was a pivotal point to see if the country was going to be able to retain it's liberal ideals carved out by all of the revolutionary politics or if it would swing towards what the time was a radically conservative approach offered by Nixon. In this book Hunter follows the democratic party on the campaign trail and shows how their efforts unravel and ends up in a big victory for Nixon. If you want to read a campaign book that draws an innumerable amount of parralles between what's at stake for this up-coming election and what was at stake in '72 I highly recommend this one. Hunter delivers again with hard hitting style and bite.