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Walter R. Mears

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Deadlines Past: Forty Years of Presidential Campaigning: A Reporter's Story Kindle Edition

by Walter R. Mears (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.3 10 ratings

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Combining sound reportage with perceptive insights” this “feast for political junkies . . . offers illuminating portraits of . . . [presidential] candidates” past. (Kirkus Reviews)

“For a reporter, a presidential campaign is the Olympics of political coverage, and an assignment to cover it is a front-row ticket from the trial heats to the finals. I had tickets from 1960 until 2000.” —Walter Mears

Walter Mears had an insider's edge—and the Pulitzer prize winning journalist made the most of it by serving newspapers around the country with some of the best presidential campaign coverage to see print. In Deadlines Past, Mears commits his unwritten stories to paper, focusing on the 11 campaigns he covered, campaigns that altered the way American presidents are nominated and elected, and how the media reported on them. The changes were gradual from Nixon versus Kennedy through Bush versus Gore, but the historical significance of each becomes very evident in Mears's detailed and engrossing narrative.

This poignant political recounting is illuminated by personal experiences and the observations of one of the finest AP reporters the history of journalism. Yet Mears never preaches any viewpoint about candidates. He tells readers what he thought at the time, without telling them what to think. The results is a richly woven fabric of fact and reflection made by a penetrating eyewitness with nearly unlimited access to his subjects. An instant classic, Deadlines Past is a compelling autobiography of hard-news reporter's life, and a captivating view of 40 years of American history.

“A fascinating look at political journalism, the fast-paced world of wire-service reporting, and changes in both in the last four decades.” —Booklist

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Mears, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter with Associated Press, the oldest and largest news service, here writes about his career spent witnessing and reporting on the political figures and policies that have shaped America in the past 40 years. Covering 11 presidential campaigns from 1960 until 2000, Mears also offers a personal account of his life as a wire reporter, before the advent of cell phones, when he called in breaking news from a pay phone in Boston informally reserved for bookies and joined comrades in keeping secret the foibles of candidates before the rules of disclosure changed. He recalls a "casual" conversation between John Kennedy and reporters covering his rival Richard Nixon, the swollen and sometimes bloody hands of candidates after a day of campaigning, the dirty tricks of President Nixon's reelection campaign, and the social turmoil surrounding campaigns in the 1960s. Mears also recollects his camaraderie with reporters, including Jack Germond and Jules Witcover. This is a fascinating look at political journalism, the fast-paced world of wire-service reporting, and changes in both in the last four decades. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Walter Mears was an Associated Press legend, a reporter who was able to observe, process, and write critical political coverage, as another writer put it, "faster than most people can think." He reported on national politics from 1960 to 2001 as one of the "boys on the bus" and was said to be the most influential political writer of his time because his AP stories appeared in virtually every American daily newspaper. He received the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 1977 for his coverage of the 1976 presidential campaign and election. He retired after the 2001 presidential inauguration and now lives in Arlington, Va.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00CMVH22O
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC (February 5, 2013)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 5, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 4328 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 447 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #2,157,446 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #946 in Political Freedom (Kindle Store)
- #1,122 in Campaigns & Elections
- #1,423 in Biographies of Journalists

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4.3 10 ratings

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Kindle Customer

Great background to 40 years of Presidential elections

Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2015

Verified Purchase

Many of the elections he covered, I remember. Some I was happy with the results, others not so much. Walter Meats does a terrific job of describing in relatively short segments the drama, strategy, mistakes and some of the sleeze that surrounds the quest for the Presidency. I particularly liked how he describes the changes in running and covering Presidential campaigns from 1960 -2000.

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Michael Larthey

1976 Debate was his big shinning Moments in the Mondale Dole debare in Houston tx

Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2015

Verified Purchase

walter Mears is the master of Presidential Politic from Kennedy to Gore singed Book By Walter mears

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Teresa McInerney

Great book. Engaged me from the first page

Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2015

Verified Purchase

Great book. Engaged me from the first page. Highly recommend. Vender was excellent.

Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2015

Excellent

Want News? Miss This Deadline

Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2005

Deadlines Past is a solid, occasionally insightful look at four decades of Presidential campaigns. But it left me wanting more.

Since Mears was an AP reporter or columnist for most of his professional life, it's no wonder Deadlines Past reads more like a long news account than a novel. That is to say it's lacking much of the gossip or inside news that never made newsprint. In that regard, the book was a disappointment. I expected that someone with the access of an AP reporter would have more to share than what he already reported.

I also expected that Mears might pull back the curtain a little more on the how and why certain stories become "big" and others don't. While he talked a bit about it, it's almost as if Mears himself was an observer of the phenomenon instead of a player in it.

In spite of missing what the book could have been, it's still a fascinating historical record of presidential politics. Not many people alive can compare John Kennedy's campaign personality with Al Gore's. Or Dole with Goldwater. I'd be lying if I said I didn't learn things about the men and their campaigns.

If you're looking for scandal or an examination of the media itself, miss this deadline. Mears just doesn't deliver.

But if you're interested more in a complete, one stop shopping for what happened in the last half of the twentieth century's presidential campaigns, it hits that mark well.

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Jane Rogers

Just what I was looking for

Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2008

This book would best be enjoyed by people who enjoy history, politics and probably journalism.

Being a young political activist and being fascinated by the current (2008) presidential primary, I wanted to explore past presidential races and contrast and compare...

I ended up finding this book at the library and thought 'what the heck'. I'm glad I gave it a chance because it ended up being just what I was looking for.

Walter Mears, a former AP newsman, wrote this book and it goes back forty years in history to the first presidential primary and general election he covered (Kennedy/Nixon) up until the 2000 election. It's clear the man knows what he's talking about. He gives all the interesting details one could want about the candidates and races and gives his observations (he had a front row seat at these races) but rarely (if ever) a partisan opinion. Being a strict partisan myself, I look for these things, but throughout the book, I just couldn't tell if he was for one candidate (or side) or another. It just doesn't enter into the equation. Which I appreciated.

Sometimes, at the end of one's successful career, when the author writes a book, it's to extoll how great they were/are. Mears spent 40+ years as an AP newsman but rarely talks about his professional or personal life in this book. The focus is on the elections and it rarely strays. In writing this book, Mears didn't seek to immoralize himself, he clearly wrote it to give a written account of history. And I'm glad he did. He paints such vivid portraits of the candidates (Nixon, Carter and Clinton stick out in my head especially) that I felt I gained a wealth of insight from reading it.

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Deadlines Past: Forty Years of Presidential Campaigning: A Reporter's Story Kindle Edition

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Walter R. Mears

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