In this timely and insightful book, Andrew Busch examines the relationship of outsiders to the presidential nominating system since the late nineteenth century. Through a series of carefully selected case studies, Busch exposes the nominating apparatus, its changes over time, and its effects on American elections.

He pays particular attention to the nominating "reforms" enacted in the early 1970s, and he studies in depth the campaigns of Estes Kefauver, Barry Goldwater, George Wallace, Eugene McCarthy, George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Gary Hart, Paul Tsongas, Jerry Brown, David Duke, Pat Buchanan, Jesse Jackson, and Ross Perot.