The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and 82 Days That Inspired America
 | Average Customer Rating: Recommend The definitive account of Robert Kennedy’s exhilarating and tragic 1968 campaign for president—a revelatory history that is especially resonant nowAfter John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Robert Kennedy—formerly Jack’s no-holds-barred political warrior—almost lost hope. He was haunted by his brother’s murder, and by the nation’s seeming inabilities to solve its problems of race, poverty, and the war in Vietnam. Bobby sensed the country’s pain, and when he announced that he was running for… Product details and pricing info |
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32 Customer Reviews Posted
- "What if" -- The question still haunts us today
- I was born in 1970 so don't have first hand perspective of the 60s or RFKs presidential campaign. However, I've always been fascinated by the decade, one of the most tumultuous, calamitous and important decades in our country's history. While many figures loom large over the 60s, one can make the case that the two figures who loom largest over that decade are MLK and RFK. They carried the hope and promise that JFK ushered in with his presidency until the latter part of the decade and their assassinations slammed shut that optimism a mere two months apart.
Clarke does a masterful job capturing the gestalt of the time pitch perfectly and the impact of RFKs presidential campaign through the course of those 82 days. To start, one must realize the difference in presidential elections today vs. this time period. The primaries were not nearly as important as they are today. The political machine still dominated the party selection process and Kennedy faced near insurmountable challenges as he entered the race from the Democratic party establishment. He recognized that he had to basically hit a home run in the remaining primaries to convince delegates to turn their support to him because of popular support of Democratic votes. May of the establishment viewed him as "ruthless" and "opportunistic" and we see how this was reinforced after McCarthy's surprise showing in New Hampshire and Kennedy's decision to jump in the race soon after that. I found Clarke's account of Kennedy's announcement and first speech at Kansas State moving. Today, politicians stump speeches are carefully crafted, crowds controlled to ensure no hostile questions and control so tight to prevent any extemporaneous occurrence that might spread like wildfire across the internet. Kansas State was not that environment and Kennedy demonstrated the traits and attributes during that night that would make his improbable run to the Presidency become an almost certain nomination as he won the California primary (and started to convince the party machine that he should be the Democratic nominee).
Clarke captures all the inherent contradictions of RFK -- his strengths, weaknesses -- and one gets a close personal "ride" through the whirlwind campaign trail. We see an RFK haunted by JFK's assassination and the realization that the same fate might befall him. (Clarke shares moments of balloons popping or other similar situations that caused RFK to recoil as if a gun was shot) We witness Kennedy's disdain for public speaking, comfort with the poor and under-privileged, moral conviction about race and poverty as central campaign themes, in spite of the advice of his advisers. We relive his campaign and amazing victory in Indiana - including the night of April 4th in Indianapolis when he stood in front of an African-American crowd in the inner city (a place the police refused to go to provide him protection that night) and probably was as big a reason Indianapolis was spared the riots that broke out across almost all other major American cities.
I wish this book didn't end - then again, that is much similar to the legacy that RFK left and especially his presidential campaign. We are left wondering what if to many questions - knowing that if RFK had lived, certainly the course of the following months of 1968 would have been different, maybe even the next four or eight years. Hope and optimism would give way to despair and disillusionment - more violence and death in Southeast Asia and at Kent State, Watergate - and we are forced to relive those 82 days and only imagine "What if". - 2008-06-25, 6 of 6 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Align your expectations
- So long as you realize up front that this book is something of a manifesto, a plea for another Bobby Kennedy (the author definitely sees parallels with the 1968 and the 2008 election . . . perhaps seeing Obama as the heir-apparent to RFK?), then you'll enjoy it. The author makes no pretense about his admiration for RFK and his desire to see another one like him.
But it is a mistake just to write this book off as another Kennedy tribute. First of all, it is well-written and readable. The book flows very well and keeps you interested throughout. It provides a pretty detailed chronicle of the campaign and does a good job of showing the evolution of RFK and his campaign advisers over time.
Secondly, this book is as much about a longing for a certain style of campaigning as it is about a person. Hence the book's subtitle--82 days that inspired America. Sadly, I think, for the author, he had to use the words "inspired" rather than "changed," because in many ways, politics has gone on its usual path (or gotten worse) despite what he views as the one modern-day example of elevated political discourse and real human concern. I personally have always been fascinated by Bobby Kennedy. I was born after he was already dead, but he interests me because he seems to be impossible to pin down ideologically. I find that it unusual (though not strange) that he is a liberal icon. I tend to be in cautious agreement with the author about Kennedy, and thought this book was well-done and worthwhile, both for those who still long for RFK and those who don't. It strikes me that all politicians would benefit from trying to understand what it was about RFK's campaign that captured the imagination of so many people. This book is a step forward in that regard. - 2008-06-24, 4 of 4 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- The timeless question....."What if?"
- What if Robert F. Kennedy had lived to become President of the United States? It's a question that has lingered in the minds of millions of us for forty years and Thurston Clarke's terrific new book, "The Last Campaign", ends with those thoughts. By the time the reader has reached that point, a succinct and well-paced narrative has unfolded, reminding us of a time of hope and possibility. If we still marvel at the short, one thousand days of the presidency of John F. Kennedy, the eighty-two days of Bobby Kennedy's presidential campaign seem all but suspended in time.
"The Last Campaign" follows a necessary timeline...Kennedy's entry into the race in mid-March, LBJ's withdrawal on March 31, the assassination of Martin Luther King a few days later and the intense primary season of May and early June. Clarke looks at the campaign from all angles and tells a remarkable story. Kennedy loved to be with children and Native Americans, preferred large, boisterous crowds to small ones and disliked speaking to university audiences. His ruthless reputation, earned from his days working with Joseph McCarthy and later as Attorney General, softened in the spring of 1968, as if he had finally been released to be himself. Indeed, Clarke points out that the most exhilarating times of the campaign were at the beginning and right at the end.
The author is careful to include much of the relevant political scene that spring. Eugene McCarthy, who had the support of the young idealists and who was a man RFK loathed, was his chief rival, but Hubert Humphrey loomed large and had the support of the party establishment. But it was the New York senator, (with the help of the "honorary" Kennedys... those linked to RFK through marriage and politics) who put a personal stamp on the issues of the day and who had the engaging touch reflected in his primary wins in Indiana, Nebraska, South Dakota and California.
It is noted in the book that many of today's campaign issues are not all that different from 1968...an unpopular war and an even more unpopular president and race relations, to name just two. Speculation will always be the order of the day when it comes to thinking about what a Robert F. Kennedy presidency might have been like, but Thurston Clarke has laid down the groundwork for what that might have been, and in doing so, has given us a lasting tribute to Robert F. Kennedy and his final political endeavor. - 2008-06-16, 9 of 10 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- An inspiring legacy
- This is a great story about a remarkable time that ended too soon. I hope that our current democratic nominee can restore some of this hope.
- 2008-06-14, 1 of 3 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Worth reading, but of mixed value
- 75% of this book was superb. The author brought the reader close to the action, very successfully, the action of the incessant whirl and confusion of the campaign. The candidate's role and that of his advisors. Where the campaign "fits into history," so to speak. Where the book is irritating is in the first 15-20%, where it appears that the author is writing a brief for RFK's sainthood, and in the last 5% or so, where he returns to that message. If he had left off those parts, I would have gladly nominated the work for the Pulitzer Prize in biography.
So I recommend the book very highly for that middle 75%, and advise the reader to move through the slavishly admiring part at the beginning. The author can be forgiven for loving Bobby. - 2008-06-13, 8 of 10 people found this review helpful, Rated:
