Game Change: Obama and the
Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the
Race of a Lifetime by Mark Halperin
A Great Look At American Politics
In Game Change, John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, two of the
country’s leading political reporters, use their unrivaled access to pull back
the curtain on the Obama, Clinton, McCain, and Palin campaigns.
Based on hundreds of interviews with the people who lived the story,
Game Change is a reportorial tour de force that reads like a fast-paced
novel. Character-driven and dialogue-rich, replete with extravagantly
detailed scenes, it’s an intimate portrait of some of the most powerful and
fascinating figures in American life—the occasionally shocking, often
hilarious, ultimately definitive account of the campaign of a lifetime.
Features:
* Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the
Race of a Lifetime
Personal Review: Game Change: Obama and the Clintons,
McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime by Mark Halperin
After completing my reading of this thrilling, well-researched book, color
me shocked to see all these one-star reviews. That's unfair. Amongst that
voting constituency are: ticked-off Kindle readers (no E-version yet);
people who've not read the book out of principle (but take a slam here
anyway for good measure); and those stating "there's nothing new here."
I won't take on the first two constituencies, but will the latter. To the
contrary, John Heilemann and Mark Halperin's technique of getting
everyone to talk off the record has resulted in a brazen, no-holds-barred
look behind the scenes at the endlessly fascinating 2008 campaigns.
Despite what you read in some of these reviews, you've NOT read it all
before. In fact, the one one-star review I side with is the one that makes
the entirely opposite case: that if the authors were knowingly sitting on
crucial knowledge during the campaign (I'm speaking here specifically
about the depth of John Edwards' deceit), then shame on them. In fact,
the authors' passages on John and Elizabeth Edwards - when culled out of
the book and stitched together for a New York Magazine excerpt - made
for truly shocking (and gripping) reading. It's one thing to have access. It's
another to craft a narrative that literally brings goosebumps to the reader.
Again: you've NOT heard it all before - the depths of Hillaryland's
dysfunction (Mark Penn and Patti Solis Doyle come out equally scorched);
Obama's initial issues getting traction (we have short memories now but
his ascension seemed hardly predestined in the incipient days of his
campaign); candidate McCain's volatility (if possible, even worse than
hinted at in the mainstream press); the lack of a vetting process for the
Palin pick (a hot topic in the blogosphere, but here obviously asserted off
the record by key McCainland insiders); and the inside story of McCain's
'campaign suspension' (if possible, he had even less of an idea of his
purpose than how it played out on TV).
'Game Change' will appeal Beyond the Beltway and to more than just the
political junkie. The 2008 campaign riveted the nation. Heilemann and
Halperin remind us why. 'Game Change' stands as the definitive account
of the race. It's unlikely to be surpassed.
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