Politics as crack cocaine

Was this the same moment at which you realized the other journalists weren't really going to let you crash on their hotel room floor?

Right! They had no respect for me -- I was definitely way down at the bottom of the totem pole. Nobody gave a shit -- "Oh, you write novels? Isn't that interesting. I'm going to be the next Adam Nagourney." I'd done nothing in my life that would have impressed them. I'm thinking, "What am I doing here? Everyone hates me, I'm alone, it's fucking cold, and the people in New Hampshire suck."

You do come across in the book as the scrappy outsider.

These guys, they travel with all these bags! I never brought more than two changes of clothes even if I was on the road for a month. I gave up my apartment. You get so lonely. And let me tell you, you start to freak out. So I called my girlfriend, and she broke up with me.

Is this the person you call "demon woman"?

Yeah. She broke up with me on Super Tuesday -- on the day Dean finally won his first state. Can you believe it? She was always trying to undermine the book.

You wrote that "politics is about getting outside of yourself and your own problems for a little while and fully immersing yourself in the lies and deceit of others." Is that the appeal of following a presidential campaign?

People who don't want to deal with their own issues get into politics. It's completely consuming, like compulsively washing your hands. Once I was hooked on presidential politics, I was totally fucked forever. It's like crack.

Seriously, how did you end up becoming politically active?

Being a ward of the court, I had an intimate relationship with the state -- I've seen firsthand what effect the state has on the people that are in its charge. So when the state is low on money, I know what budget cuts mean: When you're a ward of the court, it means worse food, less staff, unhygienic facilities and home closures. I know the direct impact of all these things. So that may be what drove me to politics.

You've mentioned as a personal turning point California's Proposition 21, which made it easier to try young offenders in adult court.

Prop. 21 was started to help [former California Gov.] Pete Wilson in his 2000 presidential run. And once he wasn't running anymore -- nobody wanted him -- it stayed out there like a weed. It came up for a vote and passed, and tens of thousands of children went to jail as adults and the judges couldn't even stop it from happening. So you have all these kids now who don't belong in adult institutions -- which is actually much more expensive than putting them in the children's facilities -- and the children are coming out damaged, more likely to be repeat offenders. Outrageous. And I just realized that if I had worked full-time, I could have stopped that bill. But I didn't have anything to do with it. It was my wakeup call: If you're not political, and you don't pay attention, bad things happen, there are consequences. And if you participate, you can have an effect.

What was your situation like growing up?

I left home when I was 13, after my mother died, and slept on a rooftop for a year. I got arrested, and since I didn't know my father's new address, the state took custody of me. The first place they put me in had 30 kids to a room. Everyone thinks it's about inspiration and volunteers -- it's not! It's about money, and getting more funding, which we won't under this administration.

Is this book meant to be consciousness-raising, or your own personal journey, going on this road trip for yourself in a way?

I was doing this to figure out where I stood. I was trying to understand what my feelings were about the American electoral process and about this campaign and about the last campaign. Could I live with what happened in 2000, and could I live with what would happen in 2004 without participating in it? Could I vote for these guys -- for Kerry or Dean or any of these people who seem so far removed from my ideals, which are, you know, slightly left of the Haymarket riots? And what makes the campaign so much fun is that you're learning at such a pace, immersed in information all the time. So I went out to figure out who I am, to have a great time, and somebody's given me the money to do what I want. But I was aware that I would also be educating readers.

From the start, you were much more excited about Dean than Kerry.

I think a lot of liberals were so disappointed with Bush, with our actions in 2000 -- we didn't pay attention, didn't think there was a difference between Bush and Gore, and we were proven drastically wrong -- that we pinned our hopes on Dean. We made him out to be more than he was. He was never the hero of the story. He was the antiwar candidate, but he never had to vote against the war, never had to take a stand. If he had been in Kerry's position, would he really have voted against it?

Next Page: And the crowd chants, "Go, Kerry, go!" -- while the candidate is locked in the bathroom for 20 minutes

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