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Hardball Essay

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Hardball Essay
Hardball Essay

The political game is a dog eat dog world, there are several factors that determined weather a politician will be successful or not. Having alliances, enemies, and deals is all part of it. In the book “Hardball: How Politics is Played” written by Chris Mathews explains what it takes to get ahead in politics and how to avoid disasters techniques previously used by others. “It’s not who you know; it’s who you get to know.” Forming alliances is very important when trying to climb the ladder higher in politics. In 1949 LBJ joined the senate and by the end of 1952 he had won the job of top Democratic leader. Before anything of this happened LBJ had a plan to achieve this, and it is called the “Johnson treatment”. It is when one goes one customer at a time, in order to feel the customer’s important. This in turn got LBJ a lot of support because of all the people he was able to communicate with on a personal level. The smaller the group to retail is always better. Clinton wasted no time getting to know as many as possible. He began to run for freshman class president on his first of campus, started networking at Oxford and Yale law school. He also volunteered in the 1972 presidential campaign of George McGovern, by the time Clinton ran for US Congress in 1974 he already had many connections under his belt. Niccolo Machiavelli warned future politicians in 1513 to stay close to people they are ruling. Three centuries later, Tomas P “Tip” O’ Neill coined the term, “all politics are local”. He understood that in order to be a successful politician, he had to appeal to the simple, mundane and everyday concerns of those who elect them into office. Those personal issues, rather than big and intangible ideas, are often what voters care most about, according to this principle. In 1950 when Congressman Richard Nixon was running for the US Senate from California, he was running up against actress Helen Gahagan Douglas. Nixon needed to form an alliance

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