A Thriller is a Political Consultant’s Dream
By Peter Schechter Thursday, 30 October 2008 00:00
As the United States election winds up, blogs, pundits and analysts are alive with last-minute analysis of the inner workings of the McCain or Obama campaigns. I have been on both winning and losing campaigns and I can tell you from clear experience that the last five days are killers. The candidates are tired. The campaigns are limping. Often the message is jumbled. The attack lines raw. The surrogates unclear.I thought the other day that what is most interesting about writing a political novel is that the fiction is the Freudian, psychoanalytical response to the frustrations of a political consultant. Looking back over the past 20 years, I realize that I have spent a lot of my waking hours trying to get politicians in many countries to do exactly what I wanted. I have tried to advise candidates, political leaders, and Heads of State by using the secrets taught to me by some of my best teachers, public opinion research, and an outsider’s dispassionate reading of the political landscape. There have been wins and losses, successes and failures. But, in hindsight, what you realize is that one’s influence is fleeting.
Writing political thrillers fixes that problem once and for all.
My first book starred US President John Stockman and Colombian President Marta Pradilla. Pipeline, due our in March 2009, has President Eugene Laurence, chief of staff Isaiah J. Tolberg and Tony Ruiz in the United States and Senator Luis Matta in Peru as the heroes. These invented leaders, and their coterie of advisors and consultants, are politicians who do exactly what I demand. No arguments. No telling me that I don’t understand local ways. No demands to prove in polling what I’m saying.
Finally!! I have found politicians who will listen. My guys recognize a good speech when they see it and deliver it flawlessly. They have unusually gifted political counselors. And, they pay strict attention to every bit of sage advice. What a pleasure!