Who deserves the Caro Treatment?

[Blair]

I'm curious what US politician people think deserves the Caro treatment?

I was thinking recently how much LBJs reputation was both damaged and improved by Caro but more so how Caro really shone a light on Texas politics, the workings of the senate and so forth- and it made me wonder what other 20th or 21st century figure you could do it with?

I thought Harry Reid would be high up the list; his childhood, his time as Nevada Gambling Commissioner, his time as majority leader, his 2010 race & of course the legendary Reid Machine.

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

Mitch McConnell really deserves one.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Mitch McConnell really deserves one.

Reid-McConnell Parallel Lives.

[Del Tachi]

Bill Clinton is the most seminal American political personality of the past 30 years, so I'd say he deserves the Caro treatment.

[Lumine]

Gingrich could be interesting. The early beginnings as a Rockefeller Republican, serial conservative rebel in the 80s, Speaker in the 90's with a meteoric rise and fall, guerrilla-style presidential campaign in 12', and with quite the impact in the Republican Party - most of us would say negative - lasting to this day.

[All Along The Watchtower]

Willie Brown.

[Sumner 1868]

Nelson Rockefeller?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Mitch McConnell really deserves one.

Reid-McConnell Parallel Lives.

The more I think about this idea the more I like it. These are guys who were each other's chief antagonists in the Senate for ten years--2007 to 2017, Frist's retirement to Reid's own--longer than any other pair of Senate party leaders (Rayburn and Martin have them beat in the House). Hypercompetent partisan hacks preceded and (in McConnell's case probably) succeeded by people seen as at least a little bit more congenial and policy-oriented but not as good at the technics of the job, roughly the same age, families struggled financially in their childhoods (McConnell because he had polio, Reid for more "baked-in" class reasons). I'm sure there are other similarities as well.

[wnwnwn]

Biden?
Senator, VP, president...

[Statilius the Epicurean]

George Wallace

His personal story is the story of the South in the second half of the 20th century