The Politician

The Politician, Stephen and Ethel Longstreet, Popular Library, 1959

This novel is about Paul Hawley Barraclough, who comes from a family of old Chesapeake Bay money. He grows up the right way, going to Phillips Exeter and Yale, eventually getting married and joining the family law firm.

A lifelong friend, Jake Barton, is the narrator. A middle-class lawyer who spends most of his time involved in national politics, he asks Paul to run for State Senate at the urging of the political bosses. He accepts, runs, and wins on the other ticket.

From the start, Paul shows a disturbing, to the bosses, sense of independence, culminating in the next national party convention where Paul engineers a win for a reform candidate over the boss-approved candidate.

The reform candidate, a man named Beverly Baxter, wins the election, and gives Paul a roving ambassadorship to get his proposals accepted by the people. The job isn't made any easier when Baxter suffers a stroke while in office, and Paul becomes the "public" President, a job that nearly kills him.

After a forced hiatus and bout with depression, Paul returns, spending two terms in the US Senate, with the only logical next step being a run at the Presidency.

To a '90s reader, raised on sex, violence and car chases, this book might seem tame and boring. Keep in mind that this is a story of life in another era, that of Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. Remember, also, that this is more the story of a man who keeps his principles, even in politics, than it is a "politics" novel, and the reader may find that this is a pretty good story.