No longer ananymous, Joe Klein speaks of his biting writings
Earlier this summer, Joe Klein visited Munich to introduce his new novel, which has been published in German under the title Im Namen der Ehre — and under the pseudonym “Anonymous” that made Klein famous in 1992. At the Literaturhaus the author talked about politics, power and the press.MF: Why did you, as a journalist, decide to write a novel?
Joe Klein: We live in a time of serial public soap operas. We know every last fact, except for one thing — how it feels to be in the middle of a circus like that. That’s what you can do in a novel, not in articles.
MF: How do you view political leadership in America?
JK: Over time we will have only ambitious people, not good, creative people leading us.
I certainly hope that it’s possible to be an honorable human being and an honorable politician. Something very interesting is happening in America at the moment.
There is a yearning for a man to tell the truth. People gathered to see McCain. They were thrilled by the spectacle of someone telling them what they did not want to hear.
MF: What was the secret of Bill Clinton’s election [in 1992]?
JK: When people elected Clinton, they knew that he was a womanizer, a manipulator, a master politician, but they also knew that he cared about them and that’s why he became president.
This is the dirty secret of politics — most politicians don’t like people; Clinton does care about people.
MF: What is your opinion of journalism these days?
JK: Cynicism has become the coin of the realm in American journalism. This age will be remembered more for the ferocity of prosecution than for the fervor of the crimes.
If we want our politicians to be more human and more credible, we as journalists have to be more human, more credible and more tolerant. But I wouldn’t do this for thirty years if I weren’t at least a little bit optimistic.
MF: How do you see the relationship between politicians and journalists? Really skilled politicians don’t need us journalists; they speak right to the public. But often there is a symbiosis. Sometimes it can be like a symbiotic relationship between two parasites.
MF: How do you view the increasing intrusion of privacy?
JK: More and more politicians find it harder to have personal lives. We need to have more tolerance, because if we go on like this we will lose some of the best of our people.
It is important for politicians to be as human as possible, to be allowed to be as human as possible. We have to be worried about politicians who don’t have relationships. They understand us less well, and I worry about how they deal with reality.
MF: Do you have any predictions about the future of political leadership?
JK: This is an extraordinary point in time, shifting from the industrial to the information age.
Politicians need to lead us into an age that will be faster, less secure. (...) I believe that this is the time when women will lead us because they have a better sense of interpersonal relations. [...] If a woman were to combine courage and humor, that would be a recipe for success.
The Running Mate ***
By Joe Klein
The Dial Press 2000
Four years ago an explosive political novel kept Washington in suspense for weeks. Primary Colors was subtitled “A Novel of Politics,” but everybody knew that it was more fact than fiction. This wicked and witty portrait of an obscure Southern senator’s rise to the presidency was obviously a thinly veiled insider’s look at Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign.
Adding to the media buzz was the fact that nobody knew who the author was. In a frantic effort to expose the identity of “Anonymous,” the Washington Post published a list with no fewer than fifty of the most likely suspects, while New York magazine employed the help of an English professor known for his expertise on authenticating Shakespeare texts to conduct a computer cross analysis of the book’s language and writings of a dozen suspects.
In the meantime it is no longer a secret that the author of the most talked-about political novel of the 20th century is Newsweek columnist Joe Klein — whom the Washington Post had given but a 50:1 chance. Another presidential election is just around the corner, and, in perfect synchrony with America’s political seasons, Klein has published the eagerly awaited follow-up to Primary Colors.
The protagonist of The Running Mate is Charlie Martin, a fictitious Midwestern Senator and celebrated Vietnam hero, who has been likened to real-life senators Bob Kerrey of Nebraska and John McCain of Arizona. Martin is how we wish our political leaders to be — honorable, compassionate and upstanding. Politics are his life, yet politics are about to destroy his life.
Rushing to the aid of an old friend’s doomed political campaign, he almost breaks his neck. His own senatorial reelection race against a right-wing, populist car tire tycoon turns into a vicious mud-slinging campaign. As in Primary Colors, Klein shows the moral dilemmas confronted by his protagonist, a man of honor trying to survive in a cynical world of pollsters, spin masters and negative advertising. “He loved politics,” writes Klein. “There was an elegance to politics. It was celestial navigation — indirect, subtle measuring your path by flickering lights, calibrating moving targets.
It was all about finding the most artful way to frustrate your enemies, to achieve what you wanted. But the game had been mechanized and denatured by the marketers; it had grown ugly and stale.” With his insider knowledge of modern politics, Klein creates a memorable portrait of a senator on the campaign trail. But, surprisingly, The Running Mate is above all a love story.
When Martin falls in love with Nell Palmerston, a New York fashion designer and mother of two, their worlds couldn’t be further apart. Martin risks losing the woman he loves because she loathes the world of political schemes and intrigues he seems to be part of.
As in Primary Colors, Klein distinguishes himself once again as a brilliant observer, a gifted narrator and a scathing critic of contemporary politics. By substituting some of his earlier cynicism with heartfelt sentiments he has given The Running Mate a softer, more hopeful outlook.
