Richard Ben Cramer - RIP

Reading the essential What It Takes, his chronicle of the '88 election from the pov of Biden, Hart, Dole, and Bush, Cramer writes:

But it wouldn't have mattered if there had been no charming jokes, if Reagan had been a vicious drooler; just as it did not mater that Reagan had no talent for friendship, no personal connections apart from Nancy. IN fact, Reagan couldn't remember his grandchildren's names, and he had no friends, only the husbands of Nancy's friends. It didn't matter! Bush had the talent, a genius for friendship. And like ever genius, he worked at it: if Ronald Reagan connected with others solely by means of funny stories, George Bush would bring funny stories. In fact, the Vice President's staff knew he didn't want briefing memos for the weekly lunch with Reagan: the way to earn a stripe in the OVP was to give him a joke for the President. This was no laughing matter to Bush. It was the core of his life's method. Back in 1978, when George Bush was an obscure ex-CIA chief, just starting to run for president, someone asked him: What made bush think he could be president? "Well," Bush said, without pause, "I've got a big family, and lots of friends." Later in the campaign, he learned the "proper" answer, some mumbo-jumbo about experience, entrepreneurship, philosophy of government...But the first answer was true. George Bush was trying to become president by making friends, one by one if need be, and Ronald Reagan was a Big One.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/08/politics/obit-richard-ben-cramer/?hpt=hp_bn3

i've owned this book for a couple years and have only dipped into it -- really should go back and read all of it. dubya makes a pretty hilarious cameo toward the opening.

I'm curious about his baseball related writing (that I have not read)-- Ted Williams and Joe Dimaggio

I wrote a bit about the DiMaggio book on the RIP thread--recommended. Joe Posnanski has a long post about him today:

http://joeposnanski.blogspot.ca/2013/01/richard-ben-cramer.html#more