Falling Up: How a Redneck Helped Invent Political Consulting (Politics Media)

Rating:
Summary: Yep, it's like that
Review: Books about politics by insiders get most of the business right, but only Ray Strother tells you what it is really like to work in national politics in plain, unhyped prose.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: Having gotten to hear him speak about it at a book signing immediately piqued my curiosity. The moment I started reading this book, I was hooked on it. Through personal anecdotes and experiences, Ray Strother relates his fascinating life story as not only one of the most able political consultants, but also one of the field's most decent people.

Rating:
Summary: N. La. Redneck
Review: I had the pleasure of visiting with Raymond last week in Montana,and hearing him tell some of the stories that were not in the book was an interesting evening.

Even though I have lived in La. all of my life so many of the stories in the book I had never heard!Raymond brought them all to life.

Rating:
Summary: great history to interesting present
Review: Raymond Strother's warts-and-all memoir of his life as a political consultant is a fun, must-read for all students of American politics. Strother's career began when there was still some innocence in campaigning, and winds up during the frustrating years of ego-driven hacks whose self-importance overshadows their candidates, to the detriment of government. Ray Strother's genuinity was formed the old-fashioned way: he grew up poor and learned to appreciate other people.

Strother's tales of Southern political skirmishes will entertain. He's a smooth storyteller who should write more, now that he's out of the maelstrom of the Washington kill-or-be-killed consultant circuit.

Caveat: I am a Republican, and although Strother's life has been spent around Democrats, his tales are compelling across the board.

Rating:
Summary: A honest look at the world of politics
Review: Strother, a Texas bred Democrat consultant who served as a mentor to better known figures such as James Carville, recounts his experiences in the rough and tumble world of politics. In many hands, this could have been a very factual, dry and boring book. Luckily for the reader, Strother is an uproarious storyteller.

The son of a fervent union man in Port Arthur, Texas, Strother more or less falls into the political consulting business by default. He begins his career in Louisana, a hotbed of corruption and questionable ethics. Thru his journey, we relive his often painful and hilarious campaign experiences with country singer Jimmie Davis, Gary Hart and Bill Clinton.

Current politics are dirty business and not for the weak of heart. Idealists are often rudely discarded before they even realize what's happened. Strother considers himself a man of integrity in a profession that increasingly looks at such a trait as a weakness. He not only has to deal with Republican adversaries but underhanded tactics by members of his own party. Strother is honest in his analysis of his work and colleagues and spares no one including other Democrats who employed dirty tricks against his firm.

No matter what side your political beliefs fall, this is a good read if you want to understand how politics work behind the scenes.

Rating:
Summary: a must read is you like politics or to be entertained
Review: The publishing world is awash with simplistic and incomplete "how-to" books. Veteran political consultant Raymond Strother, however, has written a thoroughly instructive political consulting text book, and it reads like a novel! Honorably and honestly, he has succeeded in creating a tome useful for academics and practitioners alike. He illustrates, through an accounting of his own career, why political consulting deserves to be treated and taught as a profession.
It is the emotion of this book that is palpable and raw and real that offers the best insights, however. The book may not sit well with the weak-hearted, lazy or naive, but for politically-driven persons with a longing desire to serve, the book has immeasurable value. If you ascribe to and want to help lift up the highest ideals of political service, involvement and enlightenment, then buy this book for your permanent collection. Compare your own bewildering consulting experiences to painful lessons learned by him. Liberate your political soul. Mr. Strother has made a difference; maybe you can, too.

Rating:
Summary: Here's what has really been going on in politics. Read it!
Review: What Ray Strother did not originate in political consulting is not worth knowing. What a reading of Falling Up makes clear is that he is a decent man who has avoided the worst in favor of the best in America's democracy. His rise in his profession is a lesson in the reality of politics and ought to be required reading for all aspiring office holders, present and future political operatives, and ordinary people, expecially those who think they don't count.

Rating:
Summary: Here's what has really been going on in politics. Read it!
Review: What Ray Strother did not originate in political consulting is not worth knowing. What a reading of Falling Up makes clear is that he is a decent man who has avoided the worst in favor of the best in America's democracy. His rise in his profession is a lesson in the reality of politics and ought to be required reading for all aspiring office holders, present and future political operatives, and ordinary people, expecially those who think they don't count.

Rating:
Summary: If politics is important to you, buy this book. Read it!
Review: What Raymond Strother did not originate in political media consulting is not worth knowing. He traces his life from Beaumont, Texas through the boom of Louisiana oil and politics in the 70's and his move to the national scene. Every step of the way Strother effectively serves his clients and produces winning campaigns. If you are a potential candidate or aspiring political operative, buy this bood, now. It is unlike anything you will read about the profession of media consulting.