Last Call ROMA SPOSA BRIDAL ATELIER EVENING Cordially invites you to meet for the first time in Michigan the designer Tithe Warp Ivonne De La Vega and preview her exquisite collection of I couture special occasion gowns, cocktail dresses and evening suits at our Trunk Show October 21, 22, & 23 Personal consultation by appointment 248-723-4300 722 North Old Woodward Birmingham www.romasposa.com 897320 DESIGN • INSTALLATION • SERVICE Call t wasn't until I read about the burglary in President Bush's campaign office in Spokane, Wash., that the revelation hit me: We've been liv- ing a "been there, HARRY done that" existence KIRSBAUM all along. Columnist When you look at the current times, a vicious political campaign, an unpopu- lar war in a land far away, an America that's seemingly cleaved in half — it all seems so unlikely that it will ever get better. But it will, because it's happened before. It's been a long time since I've reached for those two books on the shelf, but I just happened to notice them during a spring- cleaning episode last week. The Boys on the Bus, by Timothy Crouse and Fear and 4, a, ;; . 248.851.2804 for a personal appointment tkt; ww-w.closetdesi ns.net trs 8,14 Loathing on the Campaign Trail 72 by Dr. Hunter S. Thompson are two books written in the aftermath of the 1972 presidential elec- tion by two counter-culture writers who were not con- sidered journalists by the establishment at the time. They still hooked a lot of people on politics because of their insight, their prose and the way they helped change campaign coverage. Crouse said the transformation start- ed 12 years before with Theodore White's book, The Making of the President 1960, which described an insider's account of John R Kennedy's presidential campaign. White's book became the standard upon which future presidential cam- paign coverage would be measured. By 1972, the media's role became almost as powerful as the political par- ties themselves, and the press replaced the smoke-filled back rooms as the way Americans pick the leader of the free world. "By reporting a man's political strengths, they made him a frontrun- ner; by mentioning his weaknesses and liabilities, they cut him down," Crouse Eft FENBYSTEIN ENTERTAINMENT BANDS, D.J.s, CEREMONY MUSIC & NOVELTY ITEMS vvvvw.fenbysteirtentertairtment.com Jerry Fenby Band 864120 IMAGINE the FINEST MUSIC EXCEEDING ALL EXPECTATIONS INTRIGUE The Music and EITEerEainmenf, thai will make gour ParEgl Call Stella. Actis Aldo (248) 879-2373 Visit our web site: www.intrigue-online.com 794890 OPEN MON – FRI 7-8 • SAT 8-8 • SUN 8-3 r 6 Not 1 DELI AND GOURMET RESTAURANT % Any Menu Item! OFF on Sat & Sun 8 am-3 pm only! Good with anIother offer • Couaon must be zesentecILEzpires 1/31/05 ....... 21754 W. 11 MILE RD. • HARVARD ROW • 248-352-4940 FAX: 352-9393 c,`4 Harry Kirsbaum's e-mail address is hkirsbaum@thejewishnews.com wrote. "The press was no longer simply guessing who might run and who might win; the press was in some way determining these things." Crouse wrote about the pack of jour- nalists who followed the candidates from one event to another, and had to file something to their editors by the end of the day. Usually it was the same story with the same hook, because they were controlled by what they covered and to whom they had access. Stories were told of both Nixon press secretary Ron Ziegler and McGovern campaign director Gary Hart (yes, that Gary Hart) who tried to tilt events to favor their candidate. And boy, were those events intense. Third-party candidate George Wallace was nearly assassinated; Watergate was just heating up; the Vietnam War was still raging; and McGovern dropped his running mate Thomas Eagleton just days after the nomi- nation. The news cycle at the time was 24 hours, snail's pace compared to the instant news today, but the stories were just as seri- ous and compelling as today. Hunter Thompson's drug-laden account of the 1972 campaign will never be duplicated, and his description of the Republican Convention in Miami is worth the price of the book alone ($1.75 for the 1973 paperback edition). The photographs used in Boys on the Bus show political reporters David Broder of the Washington Post and the Chicago Sun Times' Robert Novak in more youthful times. Fear and Loathing provides drawings from Ralph Steadman and photos of Sammy Davis Jr. hugging Richard Nixon as well as McGovern wooing the Chasidic vote. Now the counter-culture journalists have been replaced by bloggers or movie-makers like Michael Moore and Alexandra Pelosi — people who don't have to answer to editors. Yes, we're in the middle of a war that doesn't appear to have an end, gasoline prices are skyrocketing, the country is divided, and everything looks hopeless. Welcome to the 2.0 version of 1972. - ❑