books | "game change: obama and the clintons, mccain and palin, and the race of a lifetime"

by John Heilemann & Mark Halperin. (hardcover, 2010)

If I came across it much later than now, I never would have read it. The strong structure and fantastically salacious in-the-room recaps of the action made its length seem less imposing. It's no more high-minded than the average political tome, and likely a better crash course in national campaigns than a poli sci textbook.

Oral histories can be delectable, especially so in this case where all the contributors anonymously torpedoed the landscape. Taking the caricatures with a grain of salt, and considering the known outcome of the story, my central question is: does Obama come off so well because he is the total package and was destined to win the election, or is that how everyone remembers it going down because that was the eventual outcome?