Politics Lost

Joe Klein dishes the dirt on presidential campaigns. And this time he uses his real name.

New in book stores this week and on my list of things to read is Politics Lost : How American Democracy Was Trivialized By People Who Think You're Stupid by Joe Klein.

Klein is the author formerly known as "Anonymous" who made millions on his novel Primary Colors a few years back. He picked up a bit of a reputation for smarminess when he steadfastly denied that he wrote that book. Primary Colors was a just-barely-disguised fictional account of the 1992 presidential campaign of Bill Clinton. It was later made into a movie with John Travolta playing the womanizing, donut-guzzling candidate and Emma Thompson as the suffering yet always savvy Hillary.

In this latest book, Klein writes of his experiences during eight presidential campaigns - starting in 1968 and continuing through the 2004 election.