This is
an exciting book about the 2008 race for president mainly focused on Barack
Obama and the Clintons. I had seen the movie and wanted to read the book, but I
was disappointed to see that it was co-written by Mark Halperin, who is a
sexual predator. The book is a good read though and fast-paced. However, the
pacing becomes a problem because of how uneven it is. The book spends fourteen
chapters on the Democratic Primary and then just three on the Republican Primary.
That felt weird.
A good quote
from Bill Clinton that I think describes modern American politics pretty well
is that, “Only a small percentage of what voters are looking for is whether any
of this stuff is true. What they’re really looking for is to see, how is this
person going to react?” It reminds me a lot of Trump, who is constantly in a
state of scandal, but apparently reacts in a way that enough people like so
that it doesn’t matter. It makes sense, because a reaction to adversity is a
good test of how the person will react in the future and actually makes sense
for a lot of jobs.
Much of
the general election section of the book focuses on Sarah Palin, who was picked
as McCain’s VP after the news that they wanted Joe Lieberman leaked and was
unpopular. She was vetted, but only in the sense that they made sure she wouldn’t
say any crazy things or feel too pressured by the stress of the campaign. The
team that actually did research into her past was only given a few days. The Katie
Couric interview really messed her up and it seems like she never really came
back from that, plus the SNL skits. There is also talk of McCain’s campaign
suspension to deal with the economic crisis. While I am a registered Democrat,
this struck me as an example of Democrats seeing the worst in people and
turning something good into something that looks bad. McCain didn’t get the
benefit of the doubt from the press and Senate Leader Harry Reid said “We need
leadership; not a campaign photo op.” I guess there is some advantage in
attacking like this, but it would be better for the country if we could be more
earnest and see the best in people. It’s a small thing, but stuff like that means
that now you can’t even do the right thing because everything is seen through a
lens of cynicism. Can a modern day politician ever just do something good
without the other side accusing him or her of doing some political plotting?
Miscellaneous Facts:
- Before LBJ, there had been no Southern presidents for a hundred years. Before Obama, every Democratic president since LBJ (and including him) was a white, southern male.
- Hillary Clinton was in millions of dollars of debt after the campaign, which probably explains why she needed to give those speeches for hundreds of thousands of dollars at Goldman Sachs.
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