For more than forty years, Jack Germond enjoyed an extraordinary career in political reporting. With his trademark no-nonsense style and tremendous wit in abundance, Fat Man in a Middle Seat remembers the personalities that dominated national politics during Germond’s career: Richard Nixon, Hubert Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy, George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. Germond writes about the real stuff of politics and captures the details of the reporter’s life on the road—the off-the-record briefings and strategy sessions, countless late nights in bars, and overcrowded Friday-night standby flights. In the words of Tim Russert, this is “quintessential Germond—candid, insightful, and irreverent.” “Richly salted with humor and anecdote. . . . Germond knew everyone, went everywhere, saw everything; his droll style keeps the plot hustling along.” “A love story about a political journalist’s life, plainly and wonderfully told.” — The Washington Post “A delicious, anecdote-filled memoir of almost half a century of political reporting.” — The Wall Street Journal “Everyone who reads this marvelous memoir—and it deserves to have many, many readers—will have a favorite anecdote among the countless tales that Jack Germond piles up.” — The Weekly Standard “Irresistibly enchanting. . . . Germond weaves a tale of the political goings-on in Washington and the nation that made the history of the past 40 years and more—all sweetened by unflagging personal modesty. He is the sort of reporter of the old school whose self-effacing professionalism raises the question of why anybody needs a new school at all. . . . I found it impossible to move swiftly or inattentively through a single page of this book, so lush it is with detail, with flashing insight.” — Baltimore Sun n forty years, Jack Germond enjoyed an extraordinary career in political reporting. With his trademark no-nonsense style and tremendous wit in abundance, Fat Man in a Middle Seat remembers the personalities that dominated national politics during Germond s career: Richard Nixon, Hubert Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy, George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. Germond writes about the real stuff of politics and captures the details of the reporter s life on the road the off-the-record briefings and strategy sessions, countless late nights in bars, and overcrowded Friday-night standby flights. In the words of Tim Russert, this is quintessential Germond candid, insightful, and irreverent. For more than forty years, Jack Germond enjoyed an extraordinary career in political reporting. With his trademark no-nonsense style and tremendous wit in abundance, "Fat Man in a Middle Seat remembers the personalities that dominated national politics during Germond's career: Richard Nixon, Hubert Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy, George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. Germond writes about the real stuff of politics and captures the details of the reporter's life on the road--the off-the-record briefings and strategy sessions, countless late nights in bars, and overcrowded Friday-night standby flights. In the words of Tim Russert, this is "quintessential Germond--candid, insightful, and irreverent." Jack W. Germond is a political columnist for the Baltimore Sun. He has been Gannett bureau chief in Washington and a columnist and editor for the now-defunct Washington Star. He first appeared on Meet the Press in 1972 and has been a regular on the Today show, CNN, and The McLaughlin Group. He is a regular panelist on Inside Washington. Germond lives in Charles Town, West Virginia. A Detached Life never worried about politics while I was growing up; I don't remember politics or world affairs ever being discussed at home. I have read about those families who sat around the dinner table talking about the Great Books or the news of the day, but we were not one of them. My father was an engineer preoccupied with his work. My mother listened to the soaps and gossiped endlessly but harmlessly with her friends about her other friends. If she had any interests beyond her own life, she kept them well hidden from her only child. Nor was I the kind of kid who had a precocious interest in serious matters. My life revolved almost totally around sports and, once I reached the proper age, shooting pool and trying to get girls into the backseat of the car, an enterprise at which I was not notoriously successful. The family came from New England. The Germonds were French Huguenots; according to family legend, my forebears sailed on whaling ships out of the Hudson River ports. My mother's family was Scottish. There were some Indians on my father's side, although he was a little uncomfortable about admitting it, even until the day he died at ninety-two. But I remember a picture of a great-grandmother who looked like a squaw in a Tom Mix western, and my father's mother, whom I met only two or three times as a small child, had straigh