Camelot's End: Kennedy vs. Carter and the Fight that Broke the Democratic Party | 
pickThe timing of this book is perfect with all the current talk of a Republican like John Kasich or Mitt Romney potentially staging a primary challenge against the National Embarrassment--in fact, Republican Bill Weld announced the other day that he'll be staging a primary challenge against him. I wanted to read this to learn more about how that works, and what the consequences are to a political party. This is a very interesting book.
"Carter significantly raised defense spending to a level the Soviet economy could not match and launched a multifaceted campaign against the Soviets, especially focusing on human rights," Peter Bourne told me. "These policies had a significant effect in the collapse of the Soviet Union but their full impact was not apparent until Carter left office. Ironically, Reagan then claimed full credit for them."
pickNeither Carter nor Kennedy comes out looking good in this book about the 1980 Democratic primaries when the latter challenged the former for the nomination. Camelot's End contrasts their lives, careers, and personalities to show how they became bitter rivals -- and how that rivalry helped their party lose the White House for more than a decade. ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
