| Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime |
Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime
Product By Harper
Available From 69 Sellers
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Technical Details of Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime
- ISBN13: 9780061733635
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description of Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime
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.
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Customer Reviews
By L. Quido (Tampa, FL United States)
This is an entertaining look at the 2008 Presidential election from a couple of Washington insiders who viewed some of it up close and personal, and had a lot of connections and sources to fill in the blanks. Since the campaign itself immersed a lot more of the population in process, this is a good look back for a lot of readers. There is a slight Obama slant, but the public gets to see far more of the "warts" of politics at this level, and really, has to wonder why anyone would choose to insert themselves into this crazy process.
I tried to ignore the early gossip about the book and the "reveals" and just evaluate it on the face of my own reading experience.
Edwards, Palin, McCain and Bill Clinton take the most hits of any other figures in the book. Hilary, while at a loss in the race, comes off as the most believable and heroic of all the figures (and I'm not a fan!). There is good support for all the smart moves made by the Obama campaign and realistic introduction of some of the criticsm of his past connections. All in all, a fascinating account, without any particularly laudable skill in the phrasing or historical significance.
Enjoy!
By RH Husky (Connecticut)
I followed the presidential campaign quite closely, and I still learned a good bit from this book. Did it cover issues or policy? Not really. But it does give you a sense of the candidates' personalities and how they managed their campaigns. My only quibble - spent perhaps too much time on Obama's decision to run and on Iowa, and very little at all on candidates who didn't gain traction, like Romney, Huckabee, Dodd, and other Democrats.
By Goethe (Green Country)
Fascinating read. Once you get into the book it is hard to put down. It will also change your views on politics, politicians in general and the election process.
By Michael DENNISUK (trenton, michigan USA)
This book is a great "behind the scenes" look at the 2008 presidential campaign. Mr. Heilemann and Mr. Halperin deliver the goods and that is the reason that this compelling read sits at the top of the NYT Bestseller list. Political junkies will enjoy riding the campaign buses and having a seat at the strategy meetings. The book has been critisized stylistically (the authors failure to cite sources) but I've yet to read that it is factually wrong. It is a compulsively great read!!
By dnk (Boston, MA United States)
Let's get this out of the way: this is a book about politicians and politics. Don't pat yourself on the back that you're reading anything remotely edifying. There is no policy or discussion of ideas. This is gossip, however well-substantiated it might be. That some of it affected who became the President of the United States is both hilarious and frightening.
The star may be Obama, but Hillary Clinton's is the story's surprising heroine. She was, in many ways, at the wrong place at the wrong time. The media loved Obama and could not stop themselves from jumping all over any potential gaffe she might have made. She said a couple of stupid things- the Bobby Kennedy reference seemed to come from out of nowhere- but to accuse her of race-baiting was ridiculous. Obama and his team understood the media landscape better than anyone else, and played it best. The fact that later debates involved most of the other candidates pig-piling on Clinton is just one more illustration here of how ugly politics can be.
But those weren't the best parts. The Edwards debacle is a train wreck you can't stop looking at- hubris has never been so entertaining. Of course, the fact that he was theoretically so close to the nomination while all of that was playing out made me shake my head. Whatever sympathy both Edwards may have cultivated because of Elizabeth's cancer is permanently gone.
McCain's campaign redefines disaster. McCain, the former media darling, can't seem to decide between sticking to his guns and catering to the polls and pols. By picking Sarah Palin as his running mate before his team had properly vetted her, he clearly chose the latter. Having read the account of her erratic behavior and her almost pathological lack of desire to educate herself about the issues, I am not worried one bit about the possibility of a Palin anything in the future.
Although there's criticism due to everyone featured in the book, the worst offenders may be the reporters and bloggers in the new and old media. Did Obama deserve the love-in he generated when he couldn't articulate what his health care plan was? Did he deserve to be thought of as possessing unimpeachable ethics when he and his team perfected the art of playing dirty while looking clean? Why was the National Enquirer the only publication that remotely cared about the Edwards' story? And should the McCain campaign, for better or worse, have been so vulnerable to media coverage? And why did we, the electorate, move so forcefully on the basis of what was published? But these questions are only implied- they certainly aren't answered here.
If you're a politics junkie, this is for you. If you're a policy wonk, stay far away.
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| Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime |