The Thread: Three books to read during the Democratic National Convention

I’ve covered a lot of national political conventions and you just can’t beat roaming the convention floor in search of the swooning delegates with the goofiest hats. Examples include the elephant trunk mashed to their head and the giant glittering donkey ears flopping over their face.  

These crowd-less conventions will be — by necessity — short on silly and long on substance, but they, nevertheless, will usher in a knock-down, drag-out campaign season.

After some thought, I have three books to get you started. I’ll share more next week as the Republican National Convention kicks off. 

As I wrote this, I drew my dog-eared copy of Richard Ben Cramer’s “What It Takes: The Way to the White House” off of my bookshelf. I read it as a young TV reporter, covering my first campaign. It helped to prepare me for the chaos, the kookiness and the sheer cravenness of political campaigning.  

This masterful book chronicles the 1988 race for president that, by the way, included a much younger Delaware senator named Joe Biden, before he dropped out.

My second convention must-read is “The Parties Versus the People: How to Turn Republicans and Democrats Into Americans” by  former U.S. Rep. Mickey Edwards, a Republican from Oklahoma. It’s a “call it like I see it” diagnosis of what ails American politics, and Edwards ought to know. He had a front row seat to the way elected representatives put party over principle, the corrosive consequences of such cynicism and what voters can do about it. 

Finally, a novel about politics when you simply can’t take any more cable news coverage of the real thing. Curtis Sittenfeld’s “American Wife” draws us into the life of Alice Lindgren, a library-loving, devout and often prim young woman who marries into a Republican political dynasty.  

If you’re thinking this sounds vaguely familiar, you’re correct. The novel fictionalizes and dramatizes the life of former First Lady Laura Bush.

As the Democratic National Convention continues virtually this week, here are three must-reads:

• “What It Takes: The Way to the White House” by Richard Ben Cramer

• “The Parties Versus the People: How to Turn Republicans and Democrats Into Americans ” by former U.S. Rep. Mickey Edwards

• “American Wife” by Curtis Sittenfeld

Next week, I’ll share three more political must-reads as Republicans take center stage.