Review Questions: Chapter 21

1.      Mortimer Conway, after learning of the Mayor's plan to rescue his sinking poll numbers, thinks of politics as a "grand, ugly game," and describes it as "idealism bastardized by competition."  Do you agree with Conway's assessment?  How well do political events and people, in real life as well as in this story, seem to fit this definition?  How is the process grand?  How is it ugly?  Toward which of these two descriptions does it more often seem to lean?  Try to name a real example of each case.

2.      As Conway leaves the building after his meeting with the Mayor, he thinks about undertaking a new project after the current campaign is over.  What is the new project he considers?  Why might the idea of pursuing this particular type of work occur to him at the present moment?