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PBS talk show host and syndicated columnist Wattenberg challenges the notion that it is economic concerns that drive people most in electing presidents and members of Congress. Rather, what concerns voters are social values that they believe can be changed through the political process: crime, welfare, education, and affirmative action. Wattenberg backs up his claims with a plethora of statistics gathered from surveys and polls that indicate support for his viewpoint. His experience in publishing this type of statistical information is well known in the field; many of the claims that he makes here mirror the same concerns that he has raised in other books, particularly The Real America (LJ 12/1/74). Wattenberg is also known for his "feel good" journalistic approach to statistics, with his basic opinion being that things are not so bad. The problem with this kind of analysis is that Wattenberg spends less than a paragraph on the federal budget deficit and provides no numbers to indicate that it is not such a bad problem. He also believes that politicians should just stand up and vote for the changes he advocates (longer prison sentences, cutting off welfare benefits to single mothers, ending racial quotas), because his survey and poll results show that most Americans feel this way. Unfortunately, most Americans are not Washington lobbyists, so it may not be as easy as Wattenberg thinks. Still, he offers some interesting ideas and gives a cogent explanation of what happened in the 1994 Congressional elections.

Wattenberg, pundit of the radical middle, argues in his eighth book (and a forthcoming PBS special) that values issues--not "the economy, stupid" --have increasingly dominated presidential politics for the past quarter century (since he and pollster Richard Scammon wrote The Real Majority) and that the candidate and/or party adopting the correct position on these issues in 1996 will win and can perhaps "save the nation." Wattenberg distinguishes two kinds of values issues: social issues, which are important, harmful (and widely agreed to be harmful) to society, and at least partly caused by (and therefore soluble by) government; and cultural issues, on which there's little consensus and which have limited potential for government action. Thus Wattenberg counsels candidates to offer alternatives to what he calls--and candidate Clinton in 1992 called--" something for nothing" policies on four socialissues: crime, welfare, education, and "affirmative-action-as-now-practiced." The book includes charts and graphs to support Wattenberg's read on these issues and free advice for 1996 candidates of the major parties as well as Perot, Powell, and Jackson. An arguable but articulate statement of views that many Americans share. (Mary Carroll)

Ben J. Wattenberg

Author, columnist, and pundit Ben J. Wattenberg is the moderator of Think Tank with Ben Wattenberg, an award-winning, nationally broadcast weekly program on PBS since 1994. He is also a senior fellow at both the American Enterprise Institute and the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C. Born and raised in the Bronx, Wattenberg was an aide to and speechwriter for President Lyndon B. Johnson, served as an adviser to Senator Hubert Humphrey, and worked on Democratic senator Henry Jackson’s two presidential campaigns, during which time he also helped write the Democratic National Platform. He has also been appointed to various boards under Carter, Reagan, and Bush Sr. Wattenberg is the author of several books on public policy and demographics, including Fewer: How the New Demography of Depopulation Will Shape Our Future, The Birth Dearth, Values Matter Most, and (with Richard Scammon) the now-classic The Real Majority.