• Prologue


• Chapter 1: Campaign Juggling


• Chapter 2: Planning for Chaos


• Chapter 3: Challengers: Senator Clinton in 2008


• Chapter 4: Challenger Case Study: The Search for the Experienced Virgin


• Chapter 5: Incumbents: Regicide or More of the Same


• Chapter 6: Incumbent Case Study: President Bush in 1992


• Chapter 7: Seven Successor-Lapdogs or Leaders


• Chapter 8: Successor Case Study: Vice-President Al Gore in 2000


• Chapter 9: Teams that Work


• Chapter 10: Conclusion: Is This Any Way to Pick a President?


• Bibliography


• Notes


• Index

Samuel L. Popkin is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego. He has also been a consulting analyst in presidential campaigns, serving as consultant to the Clinton campaign on polling and strategy, to the CBS News election units from 1983 to 1990 on survey design and analysis, and more recently to the Gore campaign. He has also served as consultant to political parties in Canada and Europe and to the Departments of State and Defense. His most recent book is The Reasoning Voter: Communication and Persuasion in Presidential Campaigns; earlier he co-authored Issues and Strategies: The Computer Simulation of Presidential Campaigns; and he co-edited Chief of Staff: Twenty-Five Years of Managing the Presidency.

There are two winners in every presidential election campaign: The inevitable winner when it begins - such as Rudy Guliani or Hillary Clinton in 2008 - and the inevitable victor after it ends. In The Candidate, Samuel Popkin explains the difference between them.