Reelection: William Jefferson Clinton as a Native-Son Presidential Candidate. By Hanes Walton, Jr. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. 352p. $49.50 cloth, $22.00 paper.

Extract

At the end of the Clinton era, it is appropriate for political scientists to undertake analyses of this two-term president's effect on any number of political and public policy phenomena. Clinton's most obvious talent showed itself in the electoral arena, where (even in a television era) he formed deeply personal relationships with voters, and many of these analyses rightfully focus on the foundations of Clinton's public support. Continuing this line of research, Hanes Walton examines a potential explanation for Clinton's relative strength in one region of the country—the turf on which his political career began—through an in-depth analysis of Clinton's electoral base across time in Arkansas and the South. The book examines a well-justified question, about the ongoing vitality of a “native son” phenomenon but numerous problems with the method by which Walton attempts to answer that question weaken this work. Numerous factual errors and muddled writing make it even more problematic.