Fat man in a middle seat

the long version

"For over four decades, reporter Jack W. Germond has made national politics his beat. In this memoir he serves up his inimitable views on politicians and elections across the country and recounts the daily trials of being a political reporter on the road - including often returning home on a late-Friday-night standby flight, a fat man in a middle seat."--BOOK JACKET. "Germond vividly recalls the races and personalities of the past forty years in politics: the great New York governors Averell Harriman and Nelson Rockefeller; the ever-present Richard Nixon; and Hubert Humphrey, Robert Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. He writes about the politics of race relations and how George Wallace "wrote the book on playing the race card." He discusses Watergate and what a nightmare it was for other reporters that two "unknown punks" had all the sources locked up. Germond is fascinating on the subject of reporting, notably on ethics and graft, and on the colleagues and bosses who didn't think he looked the part of a bureau chief. He writes about countless late nights in bars, rides on campaign planes, and off-the-record briefings and strategy sessions - the real stuff of politics."--BOOK JACKET.