Read The Boys on the Bus Online
Authors: Timothy Crouse
The Boys on the Bus (51 page)
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Since Presidential campaigns first took flight, the second (or third) plane has always been known as the Zoo Plane. Apparently this name derives from the large numbers of TV technicians who ride the second plane and who are considered slightly less than human by the print journalists.
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Which gave rise to the West-of-the-Potomac-Rule: “Nothing that happens West of the Potomac is ever talked about East of the Potomac.” The penalty for violating this rule, I was repeatedly warned, is lynching.
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Stout also had a growing aversion to losers. “I can’t
stand
losers any more!” he said after the election. “I’ve never covered a winner! Not one! I covered Percy when he ran for Governor and lost. I covered Goldwater, McCarthy, Muskie and then McGovern. I think there’s absolutely nothing noble about losing! You find a good loser—he’s still a loser.”
In January, Stout volunteered to cover Agnew full time for
Newsweek
. “At the same time, I said, ‘I don’t want to cover any more losers.’ And the editors said, ‘Well, we’re putting
you
on Agnew because we want him to lose.’ ”
To My Mother
I would like to acknowledge my debt to Hunter Thompson, who talked Jann Wenner into letting me write the
Rolling Stone
article from which this book grew, and who encouraged me from beginning to end. I would also like to thank Donald Klopfer for his encouragement and David Halberstam for his critical advice. For their help and support I also owe thanks to Suzanne Beves, Cordelia Jason, Claire Nivola, Francie Barnard, Drea Rhodin, Michael Wieloszynski, Mike Thompson, and, of course, to the members of the press corps who were generous enough to share their feelings, thoughts and experiences with me.
I would especially like to acknowledge a debt to Donald Kaul of the Des Moines
Register
for his article on Evans and Novak, “The Real Winners”; and to Stuart Loory for his article in the Los Angeles
Times
on Clark Mollenhof.
Timothy Crouse has been a contributing editor to
Rolling Stone
and
The Village Voice
, and the Washington columnist for
Esquire
, writing numerous articles for these and other publications, including
The New Yorker
. He translated, with Luc Brébion, Roger Martin du Gard’s
Lieutenant-Colonel de Maumort
. The new version of
Anything Goes
that he co-authored with John Weidman was recently staged at the Royal National Theatre in London. He is writing a book of short stories.