It's hard to tell at times, since he hates everybody, but it appears Thompson was secretly rooting for McGovern. Of Humphrey, he says - They don't make 'em like Hubert anymore - but just to be on the safe side, he should be castrated anyway. Whatever else might be said about Nixon-there is still serious doubt in my mind that he could pass for Human. He pronounces Objective Journalism a myth, and proceeds to say exactly what he thinks of EVERYONE. Thompson admits to being a misanthrope, but claims that what made him that way was politics - Everything that is wrong-headed, cynical & vicious in me today traces straight back to that evil hour in September of '69 when I decided to get heavily involved in the political process. And we won't even go into the part where Thompson's cigarette almost blows up Nixon's plane. And how many respected journalists can make this claim? - Random House still owes me a lot of money from that time when the night watchman beat my snake to death. I was bored from bad noise on the radio and half-drunk from doing off a quart of Wild Turkey between the Chicago and Altoona exit., or I finished my double-tequila and went upstairs to my room to get hopelessly stoned by myself and pass out. Oh, the madman pops up now and then with lines like. The drug-addled ramblings of a drunken madman, perhaps? Imagine my surprise to find his writing to be sharp, clear, keenly observant, and funny as hell.

Jesus! Where will it end? How low do you have to stoop in this country to be President?Īs Thompson's reputation precedes him, I had no clue what to expect from this book.

Fear and loathing on the campaign trail