"Double Down: Game Change 2012" (The Penguin Press), by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann
For political junkies missing the drama of presidential election years, a new book on the 2012 race exhaustive and replete with juicy details may tide you over.
"Double Down" by journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann is a follow-up to "Game Change," their much-discussed account of the 2008 election that was adapted into an HBO movie. "Double Down" follows the same formula: sharp writing and intriguing behind-the-scenes nuggets that are sure to get tongues wagging. Because their sources spoke on deep background, it's difficult to assess how accurate the anecdotes are, but overall they generally seem consistent with the candidates, the players around them and how the race played out.
It's hard to miss the irony of a scene where President Barack Obama tells a group of aides and political operatives that he needs to be able to trust them and trust that what he says will stay in the room. Clearly that didn't happen, and the authors report a list of his first-term regrets/second-term goals: climate change, immigration reform, poverty, Israel-Palestine, Guantanamo Bay and gay marriage.
The bipartisan penchant for dropping f-bombs is striking, as is the degree of infighting in the various campaigns. Also remarkable is revisiting the fates of the half-dozen Republican candidates who had brief moments in the spotlight and at the top of the polls, only to come crashing down. The authors note that Newt Gingrich drew a crowd of 6,000 in Naples, Fla., in mid-January, when he was on a roll during the debates; in Orlando less than two weeks later, the voters who turned up to hear him speak at an event numbered a mere 42.