Summary Of Hardball By Chris Matthews

“Hardball” by Chris Matthews challenged my perspective on how politics works. Before reading Hardball, I knew that money and advertising played large roles in presidential elections. However, after reading Hardball, I have come to understand that rather than simply being a single factor out of many, money, advertising, and retail politics control almost all of any major election. The best candidate may not always win, but the candidate with the most corporate backing, funds, and connections will. The traditional and most popular way of thinking about politics is simple; the candidate who wins elections is always the candidate who has the support of American voters. Hardball, while not challenging this notion, addresses a similar question;

He convinced me, who had previously thought of politics as the best candidate wins, the think about politics differently. He emphasizes how politicians who “sell” themselves, gain support. For example, he talked in detail about Lyndon Johnson’s political career and why it was successful. LBJ would speak to small groups of people, and get them to like him as a person; this campaign strategy was most successful in the Senate, where he got to know 100 senators on a personal level. Also, Matthews challenged my conventional thinking that if you do someone favors, they will like you and support you. In fact, Matthews argues, it is the other way around. The more someone grants you favors, the more they invest in you, which was the case of third party candidate Ross Perot. Perot asked his supporters a simple favor; to get him on the ballot in all 50 states. Soon enough, Perot supporters started showing up in shopping malls and public places, working to get him more support. Matthews says that they did this for a simple reason- once they started doing Perot favors to get him on the ballot; people became gradually more and more invested in him. Perot’s genius strategy of asking for a simple favor made him a serious candidate