Analysis Of The Book Hardball : How Politics Is Played By One Who Knows The Game

Matthews relates a myriad of examples of how some of today's most successful politicians rose to the top. The successful politicians are those who learned how to play hardball. They learnt that there were other people besides themselves on the playing field and that when you throw ball in the game of politics, someone is going to be on the other side to catch it and throw it back, and you must be ready for it. This is perhaps most evident in the section of the book called ''Enemies,'' where Matthews describes "the rule of power: Keep your enemies in front of you,'' as President Reagan did by appointing James A. Baker his first White

From Amazon.com Reviews: Hardball, first published in 1988, is like a modern version of Machiavelli 's The Prince, only much more richly illustrated, with anecdotes drawn from talk-show host Chris Matthews 's stint as a congressional staffer (where he worked for, among others, renowned Speaker of the House Tip O 'Neill). Discussing such basic principles as "It 's not who you know; it 's who you get to know" and "Don 't get mad, don 't get even--get ahead," Matthews not only dishes out choice Washington insider info, he has over the years inspired many readers to apply his principles for political success to their own professional lives.

Hardball by Chris Matthews has a subliminal message through the book itself. The title of the book related to the complexity and strategy it takes to be in politics here in the United States. His perspective is not only on just playing along in politics, but in the use of it in hard and or misleading ways. His ability to enlighten the reader on these tactics used for our congress is used to show the reader a different viewpoint on our government. Showing also that everything in politics is not all black and white. The tactics he explains through the book outline some tactics people use through everyday life in society. As in to focus on goals, keep friends close and enemy’s closer and etc. These lesson Chris Matthews explain through the book are elaborated to show how politics is more of a game of wits. Showing that politics is different than what the public perceive it to be through the media.

In a 1980 debate against Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan touched upon a core concern of the American electorate by asking one question: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” (Healey and Lenz 2014). Political scientists have long debated what sways voters in presidential elections, and whether a candidate’s campaign and personality can transcend the economic fundamentals that face the nation. Although a slew of statistical studies and literature argue on both sides of this debate, a historical analysis demonstrates that economic fundamentals drive general election results. A range of studies show that the electorate responds to economic performance, although voters’ measures of economic well-being tend not to be simple summary figures like GDP growth over four years. The economy impacts the election in a more nuanced fashion. Firstly, voters tend to place a notable amount of weight upon the election year, with other periods playing less of a role in their decision making. Secondly, the metric used to evaluate economic prosperity should be a broad sweep of the voter’s perceptions, rather than a particular macroeconomic statistic. In order to match these theories with examples, we see historical incidences of incumbent parties with the odds

6 2 8 3 10 11 13 5 Politics are, “the process by which we select our governmental leaders and what policies these leaders pursue.” In the article about Judge Jeanine, the judge thinks Obama has violated the American public’s trust and should be impeached. When a party, in this case Democrats, does things that the majority of Americans’ disagree with, like releasing terrorists, it lowers the number of people who will vote for them. Opponents of the Obama administration try to make issues seem worse than they are to further themselves. John McCain heavily criticizes Obama in another article. Obama is also hurting his own approval rates by being absent and not doing as much about current issues as is expected of him. Similarly, non politicians that strongly support one party will go after the politicians in the other party to try and draw more voters to their side as in the article where Krauthammer gives his views on Obama’s Refugee Status Proposal. They try to use keywords that will get Americans’ attention like when he talks about Obama distorting the law. The article, “President is Just

He was named the “teflon president” because no bad image could stick to him and was often said to be cheerfully ignorant of domestic and foreign policy. Reagan articulated foreign policy in terms of good and bad. Good were America and its allies, as well as the “freedom fighters” in Latin America and Afghanistan. Bad were the Communists (except China) and terrorists. The introduction of Reaganomics brought many new ideas into circulation. Reagan promised to stimulate production, reduce inflation, cut taxes, and balance federal budget. He claimed that targeting corporate producers and giving them incentives would flood the market with consumer

Analyzing the quote and maxim from the second chapter, “All Politics is Local” which reads “Members are going to come in to see you with some matter that you will think is the craziest thing you ever heard. Just remember, it is very important to that member. Otherwise, he would have never come in with it” (Matthews 47). In politics, we all have our issues that we hold close to ourselves. Some may be very concerned with foreign policy, others with domestic policy.

President-elect Barack Obama has made no secret that one of his favorite books is 'Team of Rivals ' the 2005 book written by Pulitzer-prize winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin.

In many ways, the tactics and strategies for securing a political position ring true for modern American politics and can be seen as the campaign progresses by all the American public, specifically Cicero’s advice that states, “make sure that your entire campaign is full of pomp, glamorous, eye-catching, and popular, that is has the maximum of visibility and

Pure and Simple Politics is centered on the American Federation of Labor and its role in politics. Greene discuses how the AFL began to dabble into politics, specifically elections, and how this deed ultimately led to an alliance with the Democrats. Greene’s purpose is to dispel the idea that the AFL rejected getting involved with politics, rather strategizing in ways to enhance the economy. She does this by exploring unions, trades and politics from 1881- 1917 and how the AFL evolved over this time. The book is broken into 3 main sections, Part 1: The Rise of Pure and Simple Politics, Part 2: The Strike at the Ballot Box and Part 3: The Retreat from Popular Politics. Greene’s purpose in writing this book is to dispel the long time belief that the AFL did not take part in politics and she argues this point by giving a clear description of Samuel Gompers and the AFLs activities.

ONE: Richard Rovere, in his book, Senator Joe McCarthy, explains why he considers the senator a “demagogue.” Please discuss his reasons for saying this, and (b) some of the methods that, according to Rovere, are often used by demagogues.

Voting for politicians to represent us, the people, occurs quite frequently than people think of or expect. We vote for our nation’s president every four years, senators 6 years, and house of representatives every two years on an even ending year. In addition, on voting day, people also have the opportunity to vote for measures that affect the local community at city level, and at the state level. This means that citizens have the power to change their community. For example, in the last ballot, residents of Temecula were able to vote for Measure S. Measure S proposed to raise the local tax by 1%, to help fund emergency response times. According to the website, Votersedge, a total of 38,646 people voted for or against the measure. In a city that has a

Chris Matthews, who has written Hardball, has truly changed my perspective on how politics should be perceived and how to win within the political world through the “hardball” (13) way. “Hardball” (13) is an idea how politicians could win and gain highest political status through “clean, aggressive Machiavellian politics” (13). I have originally viewed the book as uninteresting because I had lacked knowledge about politics in general. However, Chris Matthews had made the book engrossing on how he described politics should be looked up and utilized within the political world. I had enjoyed the book about how Chris Matthews used many recollections about various politicians who have encountered failures through their political careers, which had motivated the politicians to become the best politicians in the world or to achieve the highest political status. Chris Matthews was able to captivate me and many audiences on how these political rules could be applied to our situation if we handle the situation the “hardball” (13) way. Hardball will be a stepping stone for aspiring politicians to learn about the political field and to take advantage of using the rules to have successful political careers.

In the shortest section of Matthew’s Hardball, “Deals” examines the fundamentals of maintaining face towards the public and furthering politicians’ careers. Matthews, through his variety of examples, explains to his audiences why politicians must be well informed with all news, but also politicians—to remain relevant in Washington—must only speak to the public and colleagues when they are able to improve their position. With this notion of standing by a person’s principles, the Republicans—especially Sen. Lindsay Graham—swift rejection of the Iran Nuclear Deal is not surprising.

The long days and nights on the bus with Mr. Donald Trump, it grew older and older place after place; Trump will not even let me drink after a hard day’s work because his brother died of alcohol poisoning. Some days people think he is a joke and do not take him serious because of his 19-point plan for Presidency. To inform you all, Trump is in it for the long haul and he has the money and resources to stick to it out till he wins the presidential candidacy. One of the primary reasons he is running is because he is scared where our government is taking American people. Everyday I stress the importance of chapters of the novel Hardball written by Chris Matthews. Some of the chapters are prime learning tools, they help each politician take it to the next level and become a prime politician.