AND I QUOTE / What Political...

“One of my clearest memories of the Nebraska primary is getting off the elevator on the wrong floor in the Omaha Hilton and hearing a sudden burst of song from a room down one of the hallways . . . 20 to 30 young voices in ragged harmony, kicking out the jams as they swung into the final hair-raising chorus. . . . I had heard it before, in other hallways of other hotels along the campaign trail--but never this late at night, and never at this level of howling intensity. . . . A very frightening song under any circumstances--but especially frightening if you happen to be a politician running for very high stakes and you know the people singing that song are not on your side. I have never been in that situation myself, but I imagine it is something like camping out in the North Woods and suddenly coming awake in your tent around midnight to the horrible snarling and screaming sounds of a Werewolf killing your guard dog. . . .”

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Get this, baby boomers: Talking with 15 recent college graduates entering journalism, we find only two had read Thompson’s account of the 1972 presidential campaign. Writing for Rolling Stone, HST broke all the rules, and a few laws--but no one ever equaled his amperage. From his work came the term “gonzo,” a manic, exaggerated exercise in storytelling that gave a now-graying generation of readers the sensation of stepping behind the stage and into the vortex of a presidential campaign. As writer Tim Crouse once observed, Thompson never went home to face the question: What is it really like out there?