A reader pointed out the Newsweek story on the “meltdown” of John McCain‘s presidential campaign and wondered aloud if it boded ill for next month’s publication of Hard Call, the latest book from McCain and his longtime chief of staff and literary collaborator, Mark Salter (who’s now one of several insiders to abandon the campaign team). I had to admit that it didn’t exactly look good, but I needed to check in with Twelve publisher Jon Karp, whose bookish relationship with McCain began with the memoir Faith of My Fathers and continued over three other books at Random House before Karp launched his own imprint. “We don’t think the issues with the campaign will affect the book,” he replied without hesitation. “If anything, the book may help redefine the campaign.” After all, he explains, Hard Call is a book of biographical essays about people who had “the courage to take the long view,” a theme that could indeed echo to the campaign’s credit under the right circumstances. (It’s more of a Hail Mary pass than I’d be willing to count on, particularly given the campaign’s money problems; then again, if I knew so much about presidential campaigns I’d probably be running one.)
And though the boost of a potential campaign to McCain’s platform was certainly acknowledged, Karp is adamant that his sales record and undisputed status as “one of the most compelling figures in American politics” trumped any speculation about what he might be doing when the book came out. “When this deal was done in 2005,” Karp says, “the idea of a book on decision making by John McCain was so good that it didn’t matter to us whether he was running for president.” Furthermore, he observes, if a week is an eternity in political terms, the book’s August 14 pub date leaves a wide-open field where anything can happen. Karp’s optimistic Hard Call will do just fine, and is sticking to the original promotional game plan: “We’ve got people banging down the door to talk to him,” he assures me. And that is hardly like to change, no matter what happens to McCain’s presidential ambitions in the next four weeks.