MCCARTHY FOR PRESIDENT

A very readable party-favor of a book, with mementos of each 1968 primary. The campaign in Oregon was guided by Herzog, who makes few critical reflections on the whole political-amateurism mystique. The inner workings of the movement remain obscure, and the narrative is dismally discreet--no brickbats for Kennedy, no gossip. Instead of taking us behind the news clips, Herzog glosses them, reaffirming the image of the aloof, complex, courageously underdogged candidate. The book ends with McCarthy's evident retreat into ""parapolitics"" and a characterization of his Foreign Relations Committee resignation as ""the closest he came to an eccentric step."" Herzog, an early recruit to the campaign, is the author of The War-Peace Establishment (1965) and The Church Trap (1968). For backstage data and critical evaluation, the book can't compete with the observations of Halberstam or Lamer; for deeper historical and characterological soundings, McCarthy still awaits his Frady.