The First Campaign: Globalization, the Web, and the Race for the White House

by Garrett M. Graff

How the "flattening of the world" has transformed politics--and what it means for the 2008 election


The 2008 presidential campaign will be like none in recent memory: the first campaign in fifty years in which both the Democrats and the Republicans must nominate a new candidate, and the first ever in which the issues of globalization and technology will decide the outcome.
Garrett M. Graff represents the people that all the candidates want to engage: young, technologically savvy, concerned about the future. In this far-reaching book, he asks: Will the two major parties seize the moment and run the first campaign of the new era, or will they run the last campaign all over again?

Globalization, Graff argues, has made technology both the medium and the message of 2008. The usual domestic issues (the economy, health care, job safety) are now global issues. Meanwhile, the emergence of the Web as a political tool has shaken up the campaign process, leaving front-runners vulnerable right up until Election Day.

Which candidate will dare to run a new kind of race? Combining vivid campaign-trail reporting with a provocative argument about the state of American politics, Graff makes clear that whichever party best meets the challenges of globalization will win the election--and put America back on course.

The First Campaign is required reading for the presidential candidates--and for the rest of us, too.

Genres: Politics

336 pages, Hardcover

First published November 27, 2007

About the author

Garrett M. Graff, a distinguished magazine journalist and historian, has spent more than a dozen years covering politics, technology, and national security. He’s written for publications from WIRED to Bloomberg BusinessWeek to the New York Times, and served as the editor of two of Washington’s most prestigious magazines, Washingtonian and POLITICO Magazine, which he helped lead to its first National Magazine Award, the industry’s highest honor.

Graff is the author of multiple books, including "The First Campaign: Globalization, the Web, and the Race for the White House," which examined the role of technology in the 2008 presidential race, and "The Threat Matrix: The FBI At War," which traces the history of the FBI’s counterterrorism efforts. His next book, "Raven Rock," about the government’s Cold War Doomsday plans, will be published in May 2017, and he's currently on an oral history of September 11th, based on his POLITICO Magazine article, "We're The Only Plane in the Sky."

His online career began with his time as Governor Howard Dean’s first webmaster, and in 2005, he was the first blogger accredited to cover a White House press briefing. Today, he serves as the executive director of the Aspen Institute’s cybersecurity and technology program.

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full Disclosure: Garrett Graff is a friend and business associate of my son, who appears a few time in this book. I know and like Garrett and find his insights intelligent and his thoughts the product of reflection. In other words, this is a great book, not just about the process of US presidential campaigns but much much broader in scope as the subtitle asserts. It not only diagnoses a number of problems we Americans face but also states flatly that the solutions are before us, waiting only for political will to implement them. Moreover, for a first book, it is very well written--there are a very few phrases that bothered me but overall Garrett's writing is compelling and very clear. Maybe I should give it that fifth star, but then, I know the author so that seems not right.

[Dan Barlow · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned that either YouTube or MySpace will win the presidential election next year.

[Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent role at how the internet and social media technology will affect this year's election. Great insights from someone who has been on the ground doing the work before. Graff's writing is enjoyable, too. Definitely recommend this to anyone interested in politics, elections or the social implications of technology.

[Gena]

Technology is power.

[Henry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Graff's book is the most precise and literate chronicle of American e-politics I've encountered.

[Ellen]

As seen on Book a Week with Jen.