Convinced that the expensive, vulgar presidential campaign is worse than it has ever been, Americans long for the good old days of dignified campaigns and worthy candidates which, as this book demonstrates, never existed. Troy shows that our disappointment with campaigns is simply the latest chapter in a centuries-long struggle to make peace with the idea of leadership in a democratic society.

Library Media Connection Editor's Choice Award Imagine starring in commercials and traveling in your own campaign bus! Or seeing your face on bumper stickers and T-shirts! If you ran for president, you would get to do these and other fun things, but you would also have to do a lot of hard work. You would study the nation's problems, tell the American people about your platform, select a running mate, and debate your opponents on live television. Finally, in November, Election Day would arrive. You would keep your fingers crossed and wait for the results—will you be the next president of the United States? A multicultural cast of children imagines what it would be like to run for president. The entertaining yet informative text is a good conversation starter for discussions on the election process. A note about this process accompanies the story.

Just in time for election season, Dan Gutman's hugely popular THE KID WHO RAN FOR PRESIDENT is back. Humor, adventure, and excitement will draw kids into the world of elections and politics."Hi! My name is Judson Moon. I'm 12 years old and I'm running for President of the YOU-nited States."So begins this fast-paced, funny, and surprising account of a boy's run for the Oval Office in the year 2000. Under the tutelage of Lane, his brainy friend and self-appointed campaign manager, the affable sixth-grader from Madison, Wisconsin, takes on the Democrats and Republicans as a Third Party candidate who can make waves. "Grown-ups have had the last one thousand years to mess up the world," Judd tells a reporter. "Now it's our turn."

This set includes the entire Also Ran Series: Run, Jeremiah Run! and Coming Across Jordan. Run, Jeremiah Run! is a story of faith and hope. Jeremiah is a young boy who finds himself running into life's toughest situations. As a foster child, life for him is a garbage bag filled with his things, a new school, and worst of all finding a new family. All he has ever wanted is a place to call his own, his own family, and a life of adventure without getting into trouble. Although life is tough for him, he holds on to his grandmother's promise—the promise of a handful of mustard seeds being planted one day to grow into a tree of his own. After being expelled from school again, he thinks that no one will ever want him to be a part of their family. But before long with the help of his friends, he learns a lesson of teamwork and what it really means to stick it out till the end. In Coming Across Jordan, Jordan and Kevin are the new kids in school. When Melanie comes across Jordan and Kevin, she becomes interested in getting to know them, especially Kevin. Kevin is her age and is a good big brother to Jordan, who seems different than other kindergarteners. Kevin is anxious to make a good impression on his teachers, take care of Jordan and make new friends. When it looks like Kevin is becoming fast friends with Curtis, Melanie becomes worried because Curtis is always in trouble.When Curtis involves Kevin in a serious prank, both boys find themselves in detention. They serve it in Mrs. Blake's room, which is Jordan's classroom and where Melanie is a helper. Can Curtis manage to stay out of trouble and be a good friend to Kevin? Will Melanie figure out what it is about Jordan that makes him different?

Veteran political journalist Scott Farris tells the stories of legendary presidential also-rans, from Henry Clay to Stephen Douglas, from William Jennings Bryan to Thomas Dewey, and from Adlai Stevenson to Al Gore. He also includes concise profiles of every major candidate nominated for president who never reached the White House but who helped promote the success of American democracy. Farris explains how Barry Goldwater achieved the party realignment that had eluded FDR, how George McGovern paved the way for Barack Obama, and how Ross Perot changed the way all presidential candidates campaign. There is Al Smith, the first Catholic nominee for president; and Adlai Stevenson, the candidate of the "eggheads" who remains the beau ideal of a liberal statesman. And Farris explores the potential legacies of recent runners-up John Kerry and John McCain. The book also includes compact and evocative portraits of such men as John C. Fremont, the first Republican Party presidential candidate; and General Winfield Scott, whose loss helped guarantee the Union victory in the Civil War. This new edition of Almost President brings the work up-to-date with a section that explores the results and ramifications of the 2012 presidential election.

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! Michael C. Bender, senior White House reporter for the Wall Street Journal, presents a deeply reported account of the 2020 presidential campaign that details how Donald J. Trump became the first incumbent in three decades to lose reelection—and the only one whose defeat culminated in a violent insurrection. Beginning with President Trump’s first impeachment and ending with his second, FRANKLY, WE DID WIN THIS ELECTION chronicles the inside-the-room deliberations between Trump and his campaign team as they opened 2020 with a sleek political operation built to harness a surge of momentum from a bullish economy, a unified Republican Party, and a string of domestic and foreign policy successes—only to watch everything unravel when fortunes suddenly turned. With first-rate sourcing cultivated from five years of covering Trump in the White House and both of his campaigns, Bender brings readers inside the Oval Office, aboard Air Force One, and into the front row of the movement’s signature mega-rallies for the story of an epic election-year convergence of COVID, economic collapse, and civil rights upheaval—and an unorthodox president’s attempt to battle it all. Fresh interviews with Trump, key campaign advisers, and senior administration officials are paired with an exclusive collection of internal campaign memos, emails, and text messages for scores of never-before-reported details about the campaign. FRANKLY, WE DID WIN THIS ELECTION is the inside story of how Trump lost, and the definitive account of his final year in office that draws a straight line from the president’s repeated insistence that he would never lose to the deadly storming of the U.S. Capitol that imperiled one of his most loyal lieutenants—his own vice president.