The 480

Blurb

The 480 is a political fiction novel by Eugene Burdick.
The plot evolves around the political turmoil after John F. Kennedy assassination in 1963. In the novel, a fictitious charismatic character, John Thatch, an engineer, is seeking nomination for the Republican Party candidate at 1964 presidential elections. He is described as being contaminated with the "political virus". A handful of political professionals is promoting his nomination, in confrontation with the Party establishment. There exist apparent parallels between Thatch and Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., a write-in hero at New Hampshire primary.
The novel criticizes the socio-political effects on society at large from the use of computers to run massive simulations, which predict the public reaction to certain political moves before implementing them. Such simulations make it easy to manipulate the public consciousness.
The 480 in the title denotes the number of groups that the computer simulation uses to classify the American electorate. The full list of these is reproduced in the Appendix, claimed by the author to be the true list used by the Simulmatics Corporation in Senator John F. Kennedy's Presidential campaign in 1960.