Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin

 When this book first hit the stores, I was inclined to ignore it as just another tell-all book designed to earn a quick buck and embarrass a few politicians and their handlers. This first impression was reinforced by Harry Reid’s hasty apologies for his now well-publicized “light skinned, African American with no negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one” comment and for a bevy of well-timed interviews of various political operators. Not a good start. But two things happened. To my surprise, my “this is a worthy book” filter, Joan, bought the book, read it and, yes, said, “this is a worthy book.” This arrangement works well, since she devours three or four times as many books as I do and filters the read-worthy from the pile we try to sell back to the bookstore for pennies on the dollar. The second thing that happened was that there was surprisingly little noise from the various campaigns disavowing Heilemann and Halperin’s attributions, and a deafening silence about the events they describe. Whether the players made a strategic decision to remain silent, in the hopes that it would all be washed away in the next news cycle – a safe enough bet – or that any refutation would be read as confirmation – another safe bet – it struck me that this was a book worth reading. I’m glad I did.

I’ll be brief (for a change.) The book is a narrative of the Democratic and Republican primaries and the subsequent 2008 Presidential election and, although it is 436 pages, which I consider short given the breadth of material they covered – after all, this campaign cycle was longer than any that came before it – it does a terrific job bringing the reader into the tent or, in some cases, slipping your nose under the tent. You become immersed in the high-stress game of politics at its highest level. Having lived through the events (especially here in NH), and having observed the candidates up close and personal, it is fascinating to compare that experience, still fresh in my mind, with what was going on behind the scenes. That a candidate could be raging in their campaign bus one minute, and then serene and on message as the doors swings open, is a marvel. Do you have to be crazy to put yourself and your family through this? Or is it a manifestation of the ultimate human challenge that few who found themselves in that positions could resist?

Oh! Another reason that there was so few complaints from the campaigns just might have been because the book was so well sourced and, hence, credible, that the candidates probably concluded that whatever counter narrative they put out would be contradicted by the public record and by the very people who knew the facts, their own campaign staffs. One indelible fact is that once a campaign is over, it’s every man and woman for himself. Hired guns work for themselves.

I guess Heilemann and Halperin had to leave something out, but I missed Joe the Plumber, whose name wasn’t even Joe. I remember one televised campaign stop when McCain called on Joe to take the stage, but Joe was nowhere to be found. I think that tells you all you need to know about how well managed the McCain campaign was. If you’ve seen the outrageously profane and funny comedy, In The Loop, that’s what I imagine the McCain campaign to have been like, especially after Joe the Plumber went missing. I can see McCain launching into scathing tirades of profanity and everyone around him blaming everyone else, with equally scathing tirades of profanity. As Obama said at one point to his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, when things weren’t going so well, “you know, this would really be interesting if we weren’t in the middle of it!”

My conclusion? We could have ended up with John Edwards as a candidate for Vice President. That would not have been good, making McGovern’s choice of Eagleton look brilliant in comparison. (Thankfully, Obama didn’t give it a moments thought, although Joe Biden has a few quirks of his own.)   We could have ended up with Sarah Palin as Vice President. That would have been even worse. (Why did McCain choose her? At one point, when asked that question in private, Palin could only think of one answer. “It must have been Gods will.” What else?) We could have ended up with John McCain as President. Whatever you say about John McCain, Mr. Shoot-from-the-hip Maverick McCain is not executive material. He may have been an affective legislator once (past tense intentional) but he would have made a real hash out of the Presidency.  Now he's just a bitter, angry, grumpy Senator.  On November 4th, 2008, I think the electorate got it right. Of course I would say that. What do you expect? I’m just another flaming ass-hole liberal – which describes pretty much everyone to the left of Sarah Palin.