David M. Antonelli "The Candidate" PDF

he Candidate is a surreal comedy about a man obsessed with success at all costs who bluffs his way through academia on his way to an eventual assault on the White House.

It opens when a young aspiring academic con man (referred to throughout the novel simply as “The Candidate” for comic effect) dazzles at an interview for a professorship and subsequently appoints himself after he brazenly assumes he got the job and the bungling professoriate are all afraid to admit they missed the appointment meeting that never occurred. He rapidly rises through the ranks using his charm and a variety of bluffs and scams until he becomes president of the university and is eventually convinced by his supporters to take a run at the White House.

The novel reaches a climax at the presidential debate in which The Candidate is dressed as an aboriginal tribal chief to secure the minority vote in a battle against Bill Clinton - going for an unprecedented third term - and a Republican candidate whose entire campaign platform is based on the legalization of drinking and driving.