Life's A Campaign by Chris Matthews; reviewed by Susan Budig

Politics in all its notorious glory becomes a prop for this acute study of human dynamics as played out on the political field in Life's A Campaign, written by Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's Hardball and NBC's The Chris Matthews Show.

 In an easily read 190 pages, Matthews takes his reader chronologically through the lessons he's learned from sitting (and writing) at the feet of mentors, heroes, and powerhouse politicians. 

He's divided his 25 chapters into four sections:  Friendship, Rivalry, Reputation, and Success.  In every point, Matthews uses real life examples, often personal ones, to illustrate his message.  He especially promotes his time in the Peace Corps, living and working in Africa.  As a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer myself, I was very impressed with how he was able to take his volunteer service to his country and cash it in so mightily, landing himself into the heart of politics.

Matthews opens each chapter with a teaser of a title, such as chapter 12, "No One's Ever Late for an Execution"  and uses a pair of quotes to highlight the chapter's content.  In the body of the text, Matthews' narrative voice crisply lays out the details that he wants to emphasize, supported by insider tales of politicians such as Tip O'Neill, for whom Matthews worked as an administrative aide or President Jimmy Carter who employed Matthews as a speech writer.  Each chapter closes with the "Bottom Line,"  a brief, memorable tip, a distillation of the chapter's points. 

I found myself nodding to Matthews' Bottom Line.  Though often obvious, such as Whatever your ambition, you can't win unless you're in the game, his parting comments are also the self-talk we forget to follow. 

This fifth book of Matthews, published by Random House, is easily digested.  My complaint is with his omission to include story examples that feature minorities or women.  Sure we hear mention of Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton, but that's because they are in the current public arena.  I think the book would be stronger if Matthews probed into a broader cross-section of the United States.  As it is, it vividly portrays clever details of White, affluent males.  The excuse that those were the only players in politics up until recently doesn't cut it.