The Campaign is a close-up look at the paranoid, frenzied, oppressive, and exhilarating world of modern political campaigns?a universe where truth is fungible and moral conviction a mere asset, like good looks or personal wealth. Corporeal restraints do not exist. People regularly become things they are not.Evan Mandery, research director on Ruth Messinger's doomed challenge to Mayor Rudy Giuliani, offers a behind-the-scenes look at political campaigns in the television era. A day-to-day account of the 1997 New York City mayoral race, it takes us to the real battlegrounds of modern politics: polls, focus groups and television editing studios. With Mandery as our guide, we watch first-hand as political consultants, conceive of the ideal candidate and then attempt to fit their client into that ideal, no matter how uncomfortably.The stars of the story are memorable: Rudy Giuliani, popping his eyes and tweaking the truth; Al Sharpton, the colorful preacher and rising political force; and Ruth Messinger herself, torn between her populist political upbringing and the modern political world where money dominates over all other concerns. Sometimes cynical, often mirthful, and always honest, The Campaign will forever change your view of political campaigns.

A behind-the-scenes look at a modern political campaign, examining how candidates go about the difficult and important business of defining themselves in the television era.