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The Contenders

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When you get beyond the spin, the campaign spending, the YouTube spots, and the paid advertisements, what did the Democratic contenders in the 2008 Presidential election stand for, really? What did Hillary Clinton learn from Nixon? What does Barack Obama have in common with Justin Timberlake? Who are the two John Edwardses? Is America ready for the vegan presidency of Dennis Kucinich? What makes Al Gore rock and roll? Why do Joe Biden, Christopher Dodd, Bill Richardson, and Mike Gravel bother? Find out in this irreverent guide to the 2008 presidential candidates.

206 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2007

7 people want to read

About the author

Laura Flanders

12 books7 followers
Laura Flanders is a British-born US-based journalist who presents the current events show GRITtv, broadcast weekdays on Link and Free Speech TV.

She has written for The Nation, In These Times, The Progressive and Ms. Magazine, and has contributed op-ed pieces to the San Francisco Chronicle. Flanders hosted the weekday radio show Your Call on KALW, before starting the Saturday/Sunday evening Laura Flanders Show on Air America Radio in 2004. It became the weekly one-hour Radio Nation in 2007. She was founding director of the women's desk at the media watch group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), and for a decade produced and hosted CounterSpin, FAIR's syndicated radio program.

Flanders has published four books: Blue Grit: True Democrats Take Back Politics from the Politicians (2007); Bushwomen: Tales of a Cynical Species (2004), a study of the women in George W. Bush's cabinet; and a collection of essays, Real Majority, Media Minority: The Cost of Sidelining Women in Reporting (1997). She edited The W Effect: Sexual Politics in the Age of Bush (2004).

Her TV appearances include Lou Dobbs Tonight, The O'Reilly Factor, Hannity and Colmes, Washington Journal, Donahue, Good Morning America, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, The Ed Show, Real Time with Bill Maher, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation TV news discussion program counterSpin (not to be confused with the FAIR show of the same name).

Flanders has described herself as a "liberal, lefty person." She is the daughter of the British comic songwriter and broadcaster Michael Flanders and his wife Claudia Cockburn. The brothers Alexander, Andrew and Patrick Cockburn all journalists, are her uncles. Her sister is Stephanie Flanders, a BBC journalist.

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62 reviews
January 13, 2019
A very weird and very interesting read about the "contenders" for the Democratic Party primary election in 2008, when read more than 10 years later after going through Obama's presidency, the Clinton vs. Trump election, and 2 years of Trump's presidency. A lot of what was discussed did end up playing large parts in the future (now past) political climate, and so many of the issues are still just as relevant, if not more relevant, today. The sections on Clinton, Gore, and the "second tier" candidates of Dodd, Biden, Richardson, and Gravel were the most intriguing to me. It was of course also interesting reading about the person who would actually become president, Obama.
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