In 2015, the year Front Row Seat At The Circus was published, former Vice President Joe Biden was fading into retirement, while businessman Donald Trump was creating chuckles about an improbable run for the White House.
Five years later, Americans are taking a deep breath after the roller coaster journey we’ve been on, culminating in Biden’s historic defeat of Trump in the 2020 election.
Turns out those five years felt more like fifty.
When we were about to publish my book five years ago, the cover went through a variety of changes.
But I felt it was necessary to include both Biden and Trump, for very different reasons.
Trump had considered seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2012, while he was creating big waves in the GOP while I was writing the book.
My publisher and I went back and forth a bit on whether to include Trump on the cover, but in the end we decided to give him some cotton candy and stand outside the cart that featured more noted political leaders.
As for Biden, I had covered his 2008 run for the White House from South Carolina, and then he was by Barack Obama’s side when I covered their reelection bid from Ohio in 2012.
When the decision was made to include Biden in the circus cart, we had a bit of trouble with his head blending into the background.
“Danny, love the Biden pose – is there a way to tan him up a bit – his white hair is just fading into the background and he looks a little ghostly,” I wrote to graphic artist Danny Moore in August, 2015.
Moore tanned him up, and thirty minutes later, the cover was ready:
And five years after being published, the cover of Front Row Seat at the Circus is as relevant today as it was then.
Who would have ever predicted that?
