The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and 82 Days That Inspired America by Thurston Clarke is an excellent book. It is an inspiring book, a heart warming and tragic book, and a book that filled my heart with hope and sorrow. I wish we had a Bobby Kennedy right now that could reach out and pull people together like he could. Someone that could call for peace and coming together rather than shattering the populace. Someone that is honest and caring, that wants the poor and middle class to have more, do better, to achieve higher, and for us all to care for each other. Dreams, he had them. We don't have dreams now...we have a nightmare come true. ( )

Very good, very sad. Eerie at times the way RFK seemed hurling toward his death almost knowingly. Makes you wonder what might have been. Also makes you wonder how such a figure (and his policies) would fare today. Similarities for sure b/w RFK and BHO in terms of campaigning style and impact but I wonder about governing. ( )

5176. The Last Campaign Robert F. Kennedy and 82 Days That Inspired America, by Thurston Clarke (read 30 Jun 2014) This 2008 book tells of Bobby Kennedy's 82 days between the time he announced his candidacy on March 18, 1968, and the time he was assassinated in June 1968. There was little in the book I did not recall, since I was active in that campaign. The author assumes Bobby would have won the nomination and he may be right, but at the time, even after he won the primary in California, I knew there were still formidable hurdles before he could be nominated. It was an exciting and eventually very sad time and this book enabled me to relive that time. The book is not excessively pro-Bobby but does show much of the fervor which enlivened those tense and historic days. ( )

A really in-depth look at the 82 days of RFK's1968 Presidential campaign. Full of heartening and beart-breaking anecdotes. All the more heartbreaking because you know how it will all end... ( )

Out of Jack's Shadow

A stirring recount of the final days in the life of Bobby Kennedy. 1968 was one of those years that defined a generation and Bobby Kennedy was one of the reasons why and it wasn't just because of his assassination. In a time of severe crisis, Bobby was like a beacon of hope. A man who could bridge the divide between rich and poor, between black and white. He was like a rock star and campaigned with reckless abandon often thrusting himself into the clutches of the crowd.

"What did he have that he could do this to people?" Kennedy was moved by the suffering of others he saw around the country, around the world. A touch of the hand, a smile, the tears in his eyes. You could just feel the compassion, the desire to improve his fellow man. From the outset, Kennedy was running a very different kind of a campaign. As David Wise wrote in the Saturday Evening Post in March 24, 1968: "We take the position that the old rules don't apply. America is in flux, everything is changing. The old way of delegate hunting doesn't apply. We're going to the people."

Thurston Clarke does an admirable job retracing Kennedy's campaign rightly capturing the emotion of each moment in time. Clarke focuses most of his chapters covering Kennedy during the Indiana primary but also covers Oregon and finally California. In the great tragedies of life, Kennedy's most triumphant moment was also the fatal one. It was indeed ominous that Kennedy often cited his favorite poetry from the great Greek tragedies.

We could play what ifs all we want, but there's no doubt that Kennedy would've ensured that LBJ's Great Society was implemented to a full and logical conclusion. The fulfillment of the promise of "permanent prosperity" which FDR had begun. On the other hand, there is no conclusive evidence that Bobby would've beaten Nixon. After all, the backlash vote was a large one and the masterful politician in Nixon captured it easily through what we commonly refer to now as the silent majority.

Love him or hate him, the guy with the moptop was one passionate guy. As his brother Ted so famously eulogized, Bobby was a good and decent man "who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it". In the campaign year of 2008, this is really a great read that will hopefully restore your faith in politics. ( )