A couple of days ago, I picked up the book, Game Change:Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime by John Heilemann, Mark Halperin. I just finished it.
It’s been burning up the best seller list, and it’s been kind of a talker, and deservedly so. It read somewhat novelistically, with a lot of direct and indirect quotes, most of them anonymous (the authors claim to have done over 300 interviews with over 200 insiders, including the candidates themselves, but none of the quotes are directly attributed), and it’s a page turner.
A lot of the juiciest material has already been publicized, (Reid said “colored,” Edwards is a sleazeball, Palin lacks intellectual heft), but I still found it pretty absorbing, and found some of the little details suurprisng and interesting.
For instance, the book claims that Bill Clinton and GWB were secret phone buddies. when GWB was in office he liked to call Bill whenever he got bored and just shoot the shit.
Something that actually made me feel a twinge of sympathy for Sarah Palin. She had a propensity for blue, depressed moods, where she would shut down and not talk to anybody. During debate prep, she would cross her arms, look down at the floor and be completely unresponsive for hours at a time. The McCain people came to believe that she might have been suffering depression from being separated from her baby (who was in Alaska with Todd). She would say, "I miss Trig…I miss my baby…I miss sleeping with my baby.
The Clinton’s marriage is inscrutable – an extremely tight friendship and bond, even as Bill cats around as much as he ever did.
John and Cindy McCain fought constantly, and in front of other people, with John frequently screaming obscenities at her, or giving her the finger.
The Obamas come off as fairly normal. Barack actually comes off the best of all the candidates. The book contains no real dirt on him, to speak of, and presents him largely as his public image suggests – smart, unflappable, even-keeled, never too high or too low, very thoughtful and systematic.
If the book reveals any faults about him, it’s that he was, perhaps, sometimes too self-confident, bordering on cocky sometimes to his own detriment. One good example was his decision early in his nomination campaign not to bother spending too much time preppng for the Democratic debates. He was confident that he was smart enough to breeze his way through them. He was caught off guard when Hillary began cleaning his clock on her command of specific policy, while he bluffed his way through with superficial talking points and boilerplate.
He comments on Hillary throught the book with admiration and respect, and completely admits that she kicked his ass in those early debates – enough so that he made sure he took the time to prepare for the debates with McCain in the General.
Another interesting detail about Obama – he consistently resisted his own campaign’s urging to go negative against Hillary, and (even more urgently) against Sarah Palin. He declares at the beginning of the campaign that the one thing he’s going make sure of is that he doesn’t change who he is – that, I will still be Barack Obama when I come out of this thing, not some parody.
He even defends Hillary from his own staff at one point, when he sees them laughing at vido after her “crying” moment before New Hampshire. He says. “you know what, guys, this isn’t easy,” which basically shut them down.
There’s more, a lot more, if you haven’t read it, you should pick it up (it’s not really partisan, by the way, it has no ideological slant), if you have read it, what did you think?