Mike Murphy, who has run campaigns for Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mitt Romney, John McCain and Jeb Bush, named five top books on political insiders for Opinion Journal.Topping Murphy's list:
You're the Boss by Edward J. Flynn (Viking, 1947)Click here to see Murphy's other picks. (Note: none of these books are still in print.)
Depression-era Bronx County machine boss Ed Flynn's autobiography is a great inside history of the rise of Franklin Roosevelt, but it is also a how-to manual on the long-lost art of city machine politics. The likable Flynn eventually became the Democratic National Committee chairman under FDR, but he failed to land a coveted ambassadorship during World War II. Why? Because rival boss Ed Crump of Tennessee instructed one of his senators to torpedo Flynn's nomination--payback to FDR for being too stingy with Tennessee Valley Authority patronage jobs. Live by machines, die by machines.
--Marshal Zeringue
Posts
