Scan barcode
A review by deirdrelistens2books
Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime by John Heilemann
5.0
An interesting behind the scenes look at the 2008 presidential/primary campaigns. I had seen the movie Game Change, which is about the McCain campaign selecting Sarah Palin as a running mate—that’s a big feature in the book but not at all the main focus.
You get a behind the scenes look at the Obama, Clinton, John Edwards primary race. All the John Edwards parts are so incredibly slimey. The whole book comes full circle with the Clintons/Obama - going from admirers of one another, to rivals, to again admirers and Obama feeling like he really needed Hillary Clinton in his cabinet. So the development of the relationship was interesting.
The Sarah Palin parts were troubling to think a Vice President was vetted in less than five days, without looking at her ties to a secession movement in Alaska. When Palin joined the campaign, the rallies appear to foreshadow the tone of the Trump rallies in 2015-today—with racist, violent rhetoric. McCain did eventually catch on to this being problematic and would condemn it, most famously telling a woman at one rally that Obama was a “good family man” and not an “Arab,” but I don’t think the condemnations could really correct the damage done by adding Palin’s voice to our national discourse.
One of the authors of this book, Mark Halperin was fired a few years back for sexual harassment, so I think this authorship issue is also just important to be mindful of when reading, especially considering some of the tone for female politicians and wives of politicians.
You get a behind the scenes look at the Obama, Clinton, John Edwards primary race. All the John Edwards parts are so incredibly slimey. The whole book comes full circle with the Clintons/Obama - going from admirers of one another, to rivals, to again admirers and Obama feeling like he really needed Hillary Clinton in his cabinet. So the development of the relationship was interesting.
The Sarah Palin parts were troubling to think a Vice President was vetted in less than five days, without looking at her ties to a secession movement in Alaska. When Palin joined the campaign, the rallies appear to foreshadow the tone of the Trump rallies in 2015-today—with racist, violent rhetoric. McCain did eventually catch on to this being problematic and would condemn it, most famously telling a woman at one rally that Obama was a “good family man” and not an “Arab,” but I don’t think the condemnations could really correct the damage done by adding Palin’s voice to our national discourse.
One of the authors of this book, Mark Halperin was fired a few years back for sexual harassment, so I think this authorship issue is also just important to be mindful of when reading, especially considering some of the tone for female politicians and wives of politicians.