It's The Year Of the Handlers

Staffers like Baker and Sasso more than ever control the message

In six weeks, the American people will entrust either George Bush or Michael Dukakis with the keys to the nuclear kingdom. The presidency carries with it a moral responsibility that ought to humble even the most self-confident leader. Yet how do the candidates spend these final weeks, as they seek to shoulder this awesome responsibility? By reverting to a childlike state of dependency, with their every movement, gesture, word and response dictated by political handlers and chaperones. At the very moment the voters are asked to place their future in the hands of one of these men, the campaign staffs of...

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