Reporting data and predicting trends through the 2008 campaign, this 
classroom-tested volume offers again James E. Campbell's "theory of 
the predictable campaign," incorporating the fundamental conditions 
that systematically affect the presidential vote: political competition, 
presidential incumbency, and election-year economic conditions.

    Campbell's cogent thinking and clear style present students with a 
readable survey of presidential elections and political scientists' ways 
of studying them. The American Campaign also shows how and why 
journalists have mistakenly assigned a pattern of unpredictability and 
critical significance to the vagaries of individual campaigns.

    This excellent election-year text provides:

a summary and assessment of each of the serious predictive 
models of presidential election outcomes;
a historical summary of many of America's important 
presidential elections;
a significant new contribution to the understanding of 
presidential campaigns and how they matter.

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JAMES E. CAMPBELL is a professor of political science at the 
University at Buffalo, SUNY. His numerous articles on voting and 
elections have been published in journals such as American Political 
Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, and Journal 
of Politics.