Synopses & Reviews
Chris Matthews is like no other TV interviewer. Life's a Campaign is like no other book on success.
Famous for demanding the truth from his Hardball guests, Chris Matthews now reveals what the people running this country rarely confess: the secrets of how they got to the top. Here is the first book on power with insight snatched from those who wield it. Life's a Campaign exposes the tactics, tricks, and truths that help people get ahead-and can help you, too, whatever your field of ambition.
Written in the assertive, good-natured style that is Matthews's trademark, Life's a Campaign is the most useful kind of investigative reporting. You'll benefit from his insider's scrutiny of the Congress, the White House, and the national news media. Here are the methods, showcased in fascinating anecdotes and case histories, that presidents, senators, and other powerful people use to persuade others and win-and the life lessons they provide for the rest of us.
You'll learn about Bill Clinton's laser-focused ability to listen to those he wants to seduce-and how he's been teaching that craft to his wife, Hillary; how Ronald Reagan employed his basic optimism to win history to his side; the simple steps in human diplomacy that the first President Bush exploited to assemble a worldwide posse to attack Saddam Hussein and gain global approval in a way his son has failed to do; how Nancy Pelosi became the first woman Speaker of the House by practicing the most fundamental of human qualities: hardnosed loyalty. You'll also find out, for the first time, about Matthews's own wild ride through the turbulent, converging rapids of politics and journalism.
The big payoff in Life'sa Campaign is what you'll learn about human nature:
- People would rather be listened to than listen.
- People don't mind being used; what they mind is being discarded.
- People are more loyal to the people they've helped than the people they've helped are loyal to them.
- Not everyone's going to like you.
- No matter what anybody says, nobody wants a level playing field.
Knowing such truths is the successful person's number one advantage in life. As you'll learn in Life's a Campaign, mastering-and employing-these truths separates the leaders from the followers.
From the Hardcover edition.
Synopsis
With his more than forty years experience observing people and politicians in our nation's capital-ten of those years on
Hardball, five nights a week-Chris Matthews has learned from the pros what it takes to be a success. Now Matthews shows us what we can learn from the worlds most accomplished people and, more important, how we can emulate their best habits to improve our own lives.
In The Hardball Handbook, Chris Matthews focuses on four areas-friendship, rivalry, reputation, and success-and shows how we can cull the best traits of others and use them ourselves. Matthews takes us on a raucous road trip through political history and points out the best-and worst-behaviors of some of its most notable characters. Written in the assertive, good-natured style that is Matthewss trademark, each chapter has something to teach us. Here are a few truths from The Hardball Handbook:
• People would rather be listened to than listen.
• People dont mind being used; what they mind is being discarded.
• People are more loyal to the people theyve helped than the people theyve helped are loyal to them.
• Not everyones going to like you.
• No matter what anybody says, nobody wants a level playing field.
Once you understand these and other universal truths-and how to make them work for you-youll be ready to win at life.
Synopsis
Matthews, the host of MSNBC's "Hardball," takes readers on a raucous road trip through America's political history and points out the best--and worst--behaviors of some of its most notable characters.
About the Author
Chris Matthews is the author of The Hardball Handbook and is the star of MSNBCs Hardball and NBCs The Chris Matthews Show. He contributes frequently to NBCs Today and is a familiar guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He was a longtime Washington bureau chief for the San Francisco Examiner and later a national columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. He holds the David Brinkley Award for Excellence in Communications, eighteen honorary doctorates from American colleges and universities, and was a visiting fellow at Harvard Universitys John F. Kennedy School of Government. He lives with his wife, Kathleen, an executive vice president with Marriott International, in Chevy Chase, Maryland.