Introduction

The day before the Republican National Convention of 1992 opened in Houston, Texas, officials of the Bush-Quayle re-election campaign met with a small group of CBS News producers and executives. Earlier in the year the campaign's press secretary, Torie Clarke, had declared that Patrick Buchanan, the President's bare-knuckled primary opponent, would have to "get down on his hands and knees and grovel over broken glass with his mouth open and his tongue hanging out" before he would be allowed to speak at the convention. But now, deeply worried about the party's restless right wing, Buchanan's base in the primaries, these officials had been dickering with the Buchanan camp over an endorsement. Far from groveling over broken glass on his hands and knees, Buchanan insisted on making his endorsement from the convention podium during prime time on network television.

Before the President's men would consider that, they had warily insisted on seeing a Buchanan script. They had got it the night before. They had all read it -- and loved it. "It's everything we could have asked for," said Jim Lake, the communications director. "The pri ... read full excerpt from The Control Room: How Television Calls the Shots in Presidential Elections ebook