“Oops.” With that single, inane utterance, and the agonizing seconds of gut-wrenching silence that came before it, Texas governor Rick Perry—the onetime front-runner among 2012 Republican presidential hopefuls, the darling of Tea Party conservatives, the golden boy of Lone Star politics who in thirty years never lost an election—immortalized himself as what CNN commentator James Carville called “the worst presidential ‘campaign-slash-candidate’ in American history.” While the debate cameras rolled and campaign staffers looked on in stunned disbelief, Perry could not for the life of him remember the name of the third agency of the federal government that he, if elected president, would insist on shutting down. He thereby sounded the death knell for a once-promising campaign that, time and time again, ingeniously kept finding ways to shoot itself in the foot. As Perry himself so eloquently put it: “I stepped in it, man.”
But “Oops!” is more than just a comically insightful, gaffe-by-gaffe chronicle of a presidential campaign meltdown: The Little Campaign That Couldn’t. While providing juicy, exclusive details from the front lines of how Perry’s White House aspirations imploded and his campaign staff splintered into rival factions, veteran political reporter and longtime Perry watcher Jay Root also shines a bright light on how American political campaigns really work in the age of Twitter, YouTube, and the insatiable appetite of the never-ending cable-and-Internet news cycle. Root pulls no punches as he shows firsthand how campaign insiders trade access and secrets for free-flowing alcohol, how politicians try to manipulate the media that scrutinize their every move, and how diehard beat reporters—the new generation of boys (and girls) on the bus grinding it out on the long and grueling campaign trail—form tight and unlikely bonds even as they frantically compete for precious scoops.
“Oops!” is a hilarious close-up look at a campaign going down in flames—and a cautionary tale for politicians whose attempts to play the media and the American public can backfire in ways they never saw coming.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Award-winning journalist Jay Root has been writing about Texas government and politics since the “Houston Post” hired him as a cub reporter in 1990. A native of Liberty, Texas, Root served as Austin bureau chief of the “Fort Worth Star-Telegram”, where he chronicled the rise of George W. Bush. He later covered the Texas Capitol for the Associated Press. Root currently reports on politics for The Texas Tribune.
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PRAISE FOR "OOPS!"
“Jay Root’s beat for years has been the Texas governor, and here he deploys his insider’s expertise to engaging, mercilessly granular effect. ‘Oops’ is a funny, humane and thoroughly memorable account of Rick Perry’s horrorshow campaign—but more broadly, it's a you-are-there parable of how presidential candidates are pumped up, reported on, mishandled, ridiculed and thereupon consigned to the political boneyard.”—Robert Draper, author of “Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush”
“Root's absolutely brilliant take on the mad scramble for the White House should be required reading for anyone who really wants to know how the modern high stakes games are played. “Oops” is firing on all cylinders: Smart, page-turning and funny as hell. No one is better than Root at taking you deep inside the bruising , bittersweet and cautionary world of Big American Politics.”—Bill Minutaglio, author of “First Son: George W. Bush & The Bush Family Dynasty”
“What’s a whacked-out presidential campaign really like? Jay Root takes you on the Rick Perry 2012 crazy train. By turns hilarious, exhausting, perplexing and even heartbreaking, this is an unforgettable story told in an entirely new voice. “Oops” is fantastic.” —Julie Mason, host of SiriusXM's “Press Pool With Julie Mason.”
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