Rick Wilson, the man, the myth, the legend... The political Nostradamus of our ****** up times!

I may not share exact or anywhere close to the political views of this author, but that does not mean that I do not take his advise very, very seriously. Deadly seriously in fact, especially after COVID-19 infected the whole world. If Miss Corona did not delight us with her presence this glorious year of 2020, a lot of things in this book wouldn't feel so outdated. Especially since this book only came out in January of this year. Case in point: "I don't think Bernie will do anything for the 2020 Democratic nominee, and I'm not sure the Democrats have the capacity to alter his behaviour in the slightest."-pg. 115. In fact, since Bernie lost the Democratic nomination for President back in February or March (I can't remember, it feels like ages ago doesn't it?!), Bernie has been campaigning (digitally) because he knows how much he ****** up in 2016, and if he only sucked up a bit more and bit his lip then, we (the world) would not be dealing with what we are now. This is just about the only example of him being incorrect in this entire book. There are others like the next quote, which is so eery as to be almost not believable:

"Anything else can happen to **** up your campaign generally will. Weather, natural disasters, economic downturns, emergent scandals, Russian interference, terrorism, Chinese interference, plague, pestilence, and Guilder invading Florin."- pg. 223 However apt of a quote because so many of these things came to pass, unfortunately.

Rick was also correct in saying that Trump was indeed going to use the visual power of having Air Force One as a campaign background: "Both the White house itself, and Air Force One are powerful visual campaign props, and presidents of both parties have used them for their political ends. As we're painfully aware, Donald Trump lacks the genes of shame, modesty, and discretion, so expect the AF 28000 and AF 29000 to get a lot of air miles clocked in service to his campaign. Expect to see one of the two Air Force One planes parked behind him during speech after speech at airport hangar rallies around the country." -pg. 142

The best chapter IMO is titled "Speaking American," a quick how-to guide for Democrats to use on key issues like guns, abortion, taxes, etc. It was so succinct and well written for how to avoid the tripwires of the typical talking points of the Republicans.

Overall, I think even if this election goes either way (Biden or Trump winning), this will be a good book for people to read, as both a hopeful look back at these crazies times or a salient reminder that people really should listen to Rick Wilson, even if its painful at times.

Running Against the Devil - Likewise Book Reviews

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