Doing It on the Road

By MICHAEL DUFFY

PLEDGING ALLEGIANCE by Sidney Blumenthal

HarperCollins; 386 pages; $22.95

ROAD SHOW by Roger Simon; Farrar, Straus & Giroux; 356 pages; $19.95

SEE HOW THEY RUN by Paul Taylor; Knopf; 305 pages; $22.95

Given a choice between submitting to root-canal work and reading a book about the 1988 presidential campaign, many people might opt for the former. Who, after all, truly yearns to review the speeches of Jack Kemp? To trace once more the pitiful downfall of Gary Hart? To recall the days when George Bush acted more like Jack the Ripper than Mr. Kind-and-Gentle? Or to relive the moment when Michael Dukakis booted the question about a hypothetical rape of his wife Kitty and kissed his chances goodbye?

This sort of self-torture might appeal to political junkies or Democrats thinking about taking on Bush in 1992. But these folks can be counted on one hand. With his stratospheric approval ratings, Bush has yet to encounter a Democrat who will challenge him for the White House. If he avoids a war in the Persian Gulf, or wins one, he may be unstoppable. If he fails and the economy goes south, who would want the job?

Besides, Democrats are failures at presidential politics. So conclude three new books about the 1988 campaign. The authors, veteran political observers all, agree that Bush won because he and his handlers more ably manipulated the symbols of patriotism and the emotions of voters than did their Democratic rivals. Bush pretended to be someone other than himself and won; Dukakis refused to pretend and lost. Which is nobler? All three authors ponder this, but Paul Taylor does it most eloquently: "Faced with a choice between the illusion of Bush and the unvarnished reality of Dukakis, ((the voters)) knew what they wanted. How odd: a process designed to unmask the candidates wound up electing a masked man."

A political reporter for the Washington Post, Taylor earned a footnote in political lore when he asked Hart, "Have you ever committed adultery?" It was a question many believe transformed presidential politics, and for the worse. But Taylor argues in See How They Run that Hart, because of his reckless behavior and his challenge to reporters to "follow me," was a special case. Hart "took too literally the invitation in the old Beatles song: Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" Adds Taylor: "Do, if you like. Just don't expect the rest of us not to watch."

Taylor has written an unexpectedly personal book: he confesses to liking Hart, to overestimating the importance of Mario Cuomo in the Democratic sweepstakes and to being moved by Jesse Jackson. Taylor is so disturbed by the 50.16% turnout rate in the general election that he has given some thought to fixing the problem. His proposed solution -- giving each nominee five minutes of free television time on alternate nights during the campaign's final days -- is worth trying, but it may only prompt voters to reach for their VCRs.

While Taylor is thoughtful, Sidney Blumenthal sometimes lapses into being ponderous. A former Washington Post reporter now at the New Republic, Blumenthal argues that the two candidates erred in running old-fashioned campaigns better suited to the days of the cold war than to the new world order. This doesn't seem surprising; nobody knew then, nor fully knows now, how the revolution of 1989 will end.

Blumenthal looks at events through a catchy, pop-culture prism: Dukakis is the personification of "safe sex"; Jackson is "the Cat in the Hat." The / author is best at describing intractable topics, such as the complex origins of Bush's foreign policy. But when politics intrudes, he sometimes seems to miss the point. Blumenthal is still at pains to explain Hart's "philosophy" -- something that in the public mind boiled down to little more than unsafe sex -- and he makes no attempt to explain the self-destructive impulses involved in the Donna Rice affair. Similarly, Blumenthal accuses the Dukakis campaign of "intellectual" failures, though the Democratic nominee's mistakes mainly involved political, symbolic and emotional lapses.

If Pledging Allegiance takes the election too seriously, Road Show doesn't take it seriously at all. Roger Simon's work is campaign as comic relief, the most fun you can have with a political book. A columnist for the Baltimore Sun, Simon zigged where other reporters zagged, going to places and shadowing sources others ignored. He has an obvious feel for people and a way of making them talk. Simon's biggest coup is a chat with a former Hart paramour, described as a moderately attractive, 47-year-old divorcee. A patient, ardent suitor, Hart planned intimate dinners and romantic field trips to such venues as the Lincoln Memorial. In romance as well as politics, Hart seems like an escapee from Twin Peaks: once, he headed for the shower and handed the woman a biography of Thomas Jefferson. "Skim this," he told her. "We'll discuss it when I get out." When Hart finally got beyond talking, his interest quickly flagged. After a single night with the woman he bolted, never to see her again. Lucky woman.

All three books are tilted toward Democratic candidates. Perhaps this is natural: 1988 was the Democrats' race to lose, and they managed it very nicely. Nonetheless, the authors devote too little ink to Republicans, who have won every presidential election save one since 1968. If reporters spent as much time on (more successful) Republicans as they do their (more entertaining) rivals, the Democrats might someday get the hang of presidential politics. Someday.