Awesome Elected Album and Music Offers

The most influential people in a political race aren't the campaign managers, the strategists or even the candidates themselves. In fact, you won't even find them on a campaign's list of official members or volunteers.

Enter the world of the political hitman. Few know that these operatives exist, and campaigns go to great effort to distance themselves from the people who dig up their dirt. But political hitmen wield a secretly powerful position in today's American politics, where scandals derail campaigns and negative campaigning decides who gets elected and who doesn't.

For the past twelve years, Stephen Marks has worked silently behind the scenes as one of the country's top opposition researchers: a political hitman and an assassin of reputations. Confessions of a Political Hitman is Marks's intensely personal and explosive story through more than a decade in the underbelly of American political campaigns.

From his early days in politics through his rapid movement into the secret world of opposition research, Marks discovers a talent for digging up dirt and uncovering political liabilities. His work involves a wide scope of American politics, from state governments to presidential elections to the Republican Revolution. But the exciting work soon leads to disillusionment as candidates he believed in turn out to be worse than expected, and hypocrisy abounds on both sides of the political fence. Eventually Marks finds himself living in the shadows, both politically and personally, and searching for escape.

In Confessions of a Political Hitman, Marks reveals the fascinating and incredible details of what really goes on behind the scenes in American campaigning-including the political realities behind the campaigns, careers and attack ads of some of Washington's heavy hitters, including George W. Bush, John Kerry, Jack Abramoff and countless others.

Confessions of a Political Hitman is one man's story about secrets, lies, hypocrisy and influence-painting a troubling picture of whom we elect and how they get elected..
Price: $11.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The printed edition for Collectors: The complete transcripts of Elected President Barack Obama's VICTORY SPEECH of the Election Night 2008 and Barack Obamas Acceptance Speech at the Democratic National Convention 2008..
Price: $7.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

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Price: $10.35 [Notify me when price goes down.]

City, county and school district elected officials annually deal with multi-million, sometime billion dollar budgets But many have little, if any, knowledge about local government financial matters when first elected. Written in an easy to understand style, this book provides beginning and seasoned elected officials and public administrators with the fiscal awareness to confidently make good budget and financial decisions. Local government is more complex today and there are more opportunities for poor judgement, conflicts of interest, embezzlement and fraud. The best antidote is an informed constituency that insists on good government and accountability. Community members, homeowners groups, business people, unions, service organizations, public watchdogs and newspaper reporters who want to assess their local elected officials' performance will find this book invaluable. Each chapter begins with a real life story such as the city manager who used the city's credit card to go on an lavish shopping spree, the city that used debt to mask it's huge deficit or the school superintendent who sacrificed the district's solvency to create an award winning curriculum. Vignettes from over 77 different local governments across the country are used to buttress the suggested tips and techniques. .
Price: $30.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

For the People offers a new interpretation of populist political movements from the Revolution to the eve of the Civil War and roots them in the disconnect between the theory of rule by the people and the reality of rule by elected representatives. Ron Formisano seeks to rescue populist movements from the distortions of contemporary opponents as well as the misunderstandings of later historians.

From the Anti-Federalists to the Know-Nothings, Formisano traces the movements chronologically, contextualizing them and demonstrating the progression of ideas and movements. Although American populist movements have typically been categorized as either progressive or reactionary, left-leaning or right-leaning, Formisano argues that most populist movements exhibit liberal and illiberal tendencies simultaneously. Gendered notions of "manhood" are an enduring feature, yet women have been intimately involved in nearly every populist insurgency. By considering these movements together, Formisano identifies commonalities that belie the pattern of historical polarization and bring populist movements from the margins to the core of American history..
Price: $13.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The book you don't want your opponent to have.

I use The Political Campaign Desk Reference as the basic text in my courses on political campaigning. It's a practical guide that helps my students understand how a winning political campaign is put together. I'm sure many of them will continue to use it after they graduate and start running campaigns of their own

- Terry Grundy, University of Cincinnati

"Urban Lobbying" courses in the School of Planning

"With instruction on how to form the backbone of a strong campaign and how to plan to win, this is the book you don't want your opponent to have. The chapter on fundraising alone will make this book an excellent investment for any candidate or organization"

- Michael P. McNamara, Author.
Price: $15.28 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Carry the South, control the White House. What the Democratic Party could once take for granted - a region so vast and unified that its vote in presidential elections is nothing short of decisive - Republicans now claim as their own. Examining this massive shift of electoral power, "The Vital South" explores the history, meaning, and ramifications of a Republican South in the realm of presidential politics. "The Vital South" looks back to the early republic and forward to the transformations of the 1990s. Combining political narrative, in-depth analysis, and telling anecdotes, the book aims to offer insight into both the dynamics of presidential campaigns within the South and the impact of the region on national elections. Earl and Merle Black, well-known authorities on southern politics, concentrate on elections since the Great Society epoch; they analyze the Nixon and Reagan years and the crucial 1988 election of George Bush, and measure them against the triumph of Jimmy Carter, the sole Democrat to break the long spell of Republicanism in southern domains. Closely observing presidential candidates as they court the South, the authors seek to illuminate party practices and clarify the meaning behind the rhetoric of campaign politics. Dixiecrats, Strom Thurmond, George Wallace, demographic shifts, urbanization, civil rights, desegregation, racial polarization, the re-emergence of conservative social and cultural values - all are part of this kaleidoscopic story..
Price: $7.50 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Getting Elected….. Winning Local Elections

This Book is dedicated to helping you get elected in your local political campaign. It will help you become a viable candidate, rather than being lost in the candidate shuffle and unsure of how to proceed. We want you to win your local election.

Most first time candidates are regular folks who have decided to become more actively involved in their community. Being an average citizen, you don’t have a lot of knowledge about the political process, or how to build an effective campaign organization. You also have only a few months to figure it all out. This book will show you how to win your campaign.

Getting Elected has been written with twenty-five years of local political experience. You will learn about political campaign strategy learned through trial and error, how to fund a campaign without using your money, and how to be effective and successful. You will gain a good understanding of the mechanics of local election protocol. “Getting Elected” is a practical “How To” book that will show you how to become a viable candidate. It is a fast read, and will offer information on what you will need to know ahead of time so that you won’t have a bad experience in mid-campaign.

This book should also be shared with your key advisors and campaign committee. This book will be the best investment you can make on your campaign and can be your first legitimate campaign expense.

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Price: $12.57 [Notify me when price goes down.]

“Commendable and balanced . . . With crisp writing and an amazing attention to detail, Allen brings readers inside the papal jockeying, covering the days of mourning and the conclave.” —The Los Angeles Times
 
“A welcome contribution to understanding the new pontificate . . . The Rise of Benedict XVI is a useful chronicle that packs a lot into relatively few pages.”
—Richard John Neuhaus, First Things
 
“For a current look at the new papacy, Allen is the person to read. He is fair, free from the oracular pomposity of some American commentators, and, as always, highly readable.” —Commonweal
 
“The Rise of Benedict XVI . . . covers the subject thoroughly and thoughtfully. In smooth, readable prose devoid of polemics, he outlines competing expectations and explains the strengths and weaknesses of each.” —San Antonio Express-News
 
 “A worthwhile contribution to understanding why Rome has its first German pope in 800 years.” —The Washington Post

On April 18, 2005, the College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church gathered to elect a successor to Pope John Paul II. Faced with several potential candidates, the cardinals made a bold choice, entrusting the Keys of the Kingdom to 78-year-old Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, a man whose views on the challenges facing the Church and the broader culture could not be more unambiguous, or controversial. Questions arose as the world watched while Ratzinger was installed as Pope Benedict XVI. No one can tell the story of exactly what took place during the closed doors meeting, known as the conclave, when Cardinals from around the world cast their votes for the next pope, better than John L. Allen, Jr. As a correspondent for National Catholic Reporter and a Vatican analyst for CNN and National Public Radio, Allen has spent years covering Vatican politics and personalities, and his unique access to Roman halls of power has enabled him to write the ultimate behind-the-scenes account of the election of Pope Benedict XVI.

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Price: $6.75 [Notify me when price goes down.]