Political reporter Mark Curtis speaks in Danville and Lafayette

Danville resident and longtime political reporter discusses his new book Age of Obama: A Reporter’s Journey with Clinton, McCain & Obama in the Making of the President 2008

I've been enjoying Mark Curtis's new book, Age of Obama: A Reporter’s Journey with Clinton, McCain, and Obama in the Making of the President 2008. Curtis, a Danville resident and longtime political reporter, writes about his journeys across America covering the 2008 presidential campaign from the perspective of the regular Joe's (but, refreshingly, no Joe the Plumbers) attending rallies, conventions, etc. Close-up pics of campaign figures Barack Obama, Hillary and Bill Clinton, Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul, and even Chuck Norris, taken with Curtis' digital camera, add to that fly-on-the-wall perspective.

I ran into Curtis at last week's CCUSA event in Concord and had another chance to catch up with him a few days later at the Diablo offices. He's a really fun guy to speak with, especially if you are a political junkie like me, because he soaks up so much of the crazy spin of the campaign and responds with a thoughtful series of insights about the effectiveness of those campaigns and their connection to the pulse of the American voter. Curtis is also a wealth of political trivia (the term 'OK' comes from Martin Van Buren's campaign slogan, 'Van Buren's OK!' a shortening of Old Kinderhook, which was Van Buren's nickname, because he came from the village of Kinderhook, NY—nice!). The two East Bay appearances Mark Curtis is making to promote his new book—at Rakestraw Books in Danville on Friday, February 6 at 7 p.m. and at Lafayette Book Store on Sunday, February 8—should be great fun for anyone suffering from campaign withdrawal... or wanting to chat about stimulus package spin!

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