Hail to the Candidate by Keith E. Melder (1992)

To most people, our electoral stalemate has dragged on long enough such that they are longing for the tranquility of politics as usual.

Instead, I think these campaigns are a great thing for the American people. The campaign is the only time when we can truly hold our leaders under scrutiny rather than placing them on a pedestal. To win our votes, they must come across as disciplined, hard-working, and sincere, without speaking down to us from an ivory tower (see Adlai Stevenson).

Hail to the Candidate is a concise evolution of the candidate-voter relationship. The book is spangled with pictures of buttons, posters, memos, and photos demonstrating the changing role of the media, and the new ways voters wished to be courted.

One particularly interesting item is a pamphlet from a 1950's Democratic National Convention, in which the delegates were given their first lesson in TV etiquette. Here is an excerpt:

"Pay no attention to the cameras -- then they'll pay more attention to you. You'll really get wiped out but fast if you insist on playing lens-mugger, hand-waver, TVbitionist."

The book has dozens more campaign artifacts from the Smithsonian institution.

If you are feeling unappreciated by our politicians, get cozy with this book and feel important once again.