[4][5][6] The film stars John Travolta, Emma Thompson, Billy Bob Thornton, Kathy Bates, Maura Tierney, Larry Hagman, and Adrian Lester.

Henry Burton, a young political idealist and grandson of a civil rights leader, is recruited to join the campaign of Jack Stanton, a charismatic Southern governor trying to win the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States.

After Jack completes an impressive debate performance against his rivals, Henry's ex-girlfriend shows up to question the governor about his arrest for an anti-war protest at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.

The Stantons hire an old friend, the tough but unbalanced Libby Holden, to investigate allegations - including Jack's notorious womanizing - that could be used by opponents to undermine him.

One of these women, Susan's hairdresser, Cashmere McLeod, produces secret taped conversations with the governor, showing they had an affair.

Henry discovers the tapes have been doctored, so Libby tracks down the man responsible and forces him at gunpoint to confess his guilt in a letter to the American public.

Realizing Jack is falling behind in the polls, his team adopt an offensive strategy, attacking his nearest rival, Senator Harris, for casting anti-Israel votes and favoring cuts in Social Security and Medicare.

Libby tells Jack that if he does so, she will reveal that he tampered with the paternity test results, which showed that he had impregnated Willie's daughter.

[8] Tom Hanks expressed interest in the project but was busy working on Saving Private Ryan and executive-producing From the Earth to the Moon for HBO, so recommended Nichols cast someone else.

[1] Nichols was criticized for cutting an interracial love scene between Henry and Susan Stanton from the final version of the film.

Variety's reviewer called it a "film à clef" and said that the American public was likely to accept it as a factual account because it so closely mirrored real life characters and events.