BOOKS

After completing his second and final term as governor of Mississippi in his early fifties, Jeff Ackerman is seeking direction for the next stage in his life.  On a whim, he decides to run for president in the 2016 election against incumbent Democrat Upton Landers. Landers is a reasonably popular sitting president during a time of peace and a stable economy.  With the odds favoring the incumbent in this scenario, the well-known Republican politicians elect to sit on the sidelines for the 2016 election, implicitly conceding re-election to Landers.  This leaves the Republican field open to squishy moderates, has-beens, and never-have-beens such as Jeff Ackerman.

 

The unlikely candidate overcomes the opposition of his wife, the doubts of his campaign manager, zero national name recognition, and the disastrous announcement of his candidacy to win the Republican nomination. 

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Ackerman is a Christian and a conservative.  But he didn’t plan on running as a Christian Conservative.  While not ashamed of his faith, he isn’t comfortable using it as a reason for someone to vote for him.  The Democrats, however, view this as an opportunity to toss both conservatism and Christianity onto the political ash heap.  They shed their moderate mask, and Landers runs as an unapologetic Leftist.  The Left’s media minions attack Ackerman for both his conservatism and his Christian faith in a coordinated effort to boost Landers to victory.  Ackerman reluctantly defends his faith on the national stage while continuing to explain the strong rationale for his conservative policy positions, all in an effort to accomplish the biggest upset in American political history.  

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The Unlikely Candidate takes you on a thought-provoking journey into the Oval Office, Air Force One, a New York City newsroom, the pulpit of an African-American church in Detroit, and the headquarters of an agribusiness conglomerate in Iowa.  One part political commentary, one part media criticism, and one part Christian apologetic, this novel prioritizes ideas and ideals.  Stephen Palmer weaves various threads into a compelling, fast-moving narrative that keeps the reader thinking and anxiously turning pages.

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In The Unlikely President, Palmer continues the saga of Jeff Ackerman. The Washington newcomer battles an array of opponents in a struggle to turn his campaign promises into policy. A natural disaster, inflation, a recession, foreign enemies, domestic political opponents, and their media allies combine to batter Ackerman's poll numbers along with the American economy. Can the new president overcome these obstacles and get his policies implemented? And will those policies reverse America's downward spiral? And can all of this be accomplished in time to save his presidency?

 

Once again, Stephen Palmer explains the "why" behind conservative policy positions in an engaging, often humorous look inside Washington politics.