Game Change - by John Heilemann & Mark Halperin (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

The gripping inside story of the 2008 presidential election, by two of the best political reporters in the country.

"It's one of the best books on politics of any kind I've read. For entertainment value, I put it up there with Catch 22." --The Financial Times

"It transports you to a parallel universe in which everything in the National Enquirer is true....More interesting is what we learn about the candidates themselves: their frailties, egos and almost super-human stamina." --The Financial Times

"I can't put down this book!" --Stephen Colbert

Game Change is the New York Times bestselling story of the 2008 presidential election, by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, two of the best political reporters in the country. In the spirit of Richard Ben Cramer's What It Takes and Theodore H. White's The Making of the President 1960, this classic campaign trail book tells the defining story of a new era in American politics, going deeper behind the scenes of the Obama/Biden and McCain/Palin campaigns than any other account of the historic 2008 election.

From the Back Cover

In 2008, the presidential election became blockbuster entertainment. Everyone was watching as the race for the White House unfolded like something from the realm of fiction. The meteoric rise and historic triumph of Barack Obama. The shocking fall of the House of Clinton--and the improbable resurrection of Hillary as Obama's partner and America's face to the world. The mercurial performance of John McCain and the mesmerizing emergence of Sarah Palin. But despite the wall-to-wall media coverage of this spellbinding drama, remarkably little of the real story behind the headlines had been told--until now.

In Game Change, John Heilemann and Mark Halperin pull back the curtain on the Obama, Clinton, McCain, and Palin campaigns. Based on hundreds of interviews with the people who lived the story, Game Change is a reportorial tour de force that reads like a fast-paced novel.

Review Quotes

"Everybody talked. Anybody that tells you they didn't is lying to you." - A former top Clinton aide, to Politico's Ben Smith

"Riveting, definitive. . . . A great campaign book. . . . Halperin and Heilemann got insiders to cough up astonishing artifacts, including emails and recordings. . . . Game Change is really interesting, and puts you deep in the middle of it." - Kurt Andersen, Very Short List

"Heilemann and Halperin have conducted hundreds of interviews to provide the inside story of the 2008 campaign. . . . It vividly shows how character flaws large and small caused Obama's opponents to self-destruct." - Jacob Heilbrunn, The New York Times Book Review

"A fascinating account. . . . Heilemann and Halperin serve up a spicy smorgasbord of observations, revelations, and allegations. . . . The authors mix savvy political analysis in these pages with detailed reconstructions of scenes and conversations. . . . Game Change leaves the reader with a vivid, visceral sense of the campaign and a keen understanding of the paradoxes and contingencies of history." - Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

"A fascinating account. . . . Heilemann and Halperin serve up a spicy smorgasbord of observations, revelations, and allegations. . . . Game Change leaves the reader with a vivid, visceral sense of the campaign and a keen understanding of the paradoxes and contingencies of history." - Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

"I can't put down this book!" - Stephen Colbert

"A thoroughly researched, well-paced and occasionally very amusing read. . . . The result is something that conveys the feel, or perhaps more accurately the smell, of one of recent history's most thrilling elections, and it does so better than any of the other books already on the market." - The Economist

"The authors of Game Change succeed in creating a plausible account of the emotional tumult of the 2008 campaign as it might have been--perhaps even was--experienced by the candidates, their spouses, and their staffs." - Hendrik Hertzberg, The New Yorker

"An amazing piece of work. . . . It's one of the best books on politics of any kind I've read. For entertainment value, I put it up there with Catch 22. . . . It is an absolutely gripping read, because on top of everything else, they can write." - Clive Crook, The Financial Times

"An amazing piece of work. . . . One of the best books on politics of any kind I've read. For entertainment value, I put it up there with Catch 22. . . . An absolutely gripping read . . . they can write." - Clive Crook, The Financial Times

"Riveting. . . . Its pages brim with scandalous tidbits. . . . This is a must-read for anyone interested in the cutthroat backroom hows and whys of a presidential campaign. . . . And it doesn't hurt that Game Change reads more bodice-ripper than Beltway." - Tina Jordan, Entertainment Weekly

"A smoking new book. . . . The real revelation in Game Change: Campaigns turn our politicians into lunatics." - Tina Brown, The Daily Beast

"Compulsively readable. Once begun, you can't put it down. . . . Deeply and knowledgeably reported and presented with all the cool sophistication one would expect from two accomplished political reporters." - Tim Rutten, The Los Angeles Times

"The hottest book in the country." - The Associated Press

"The best presidential political book since What it Takes by Richard Ben Cramer and Teddy White's books. These are the types of books that got me into politics." - Joe Scarborough

"An explosive new book. . . . An absolute page turner." - Soledad O'Brien on Larry King Live

"You've got to read Game Change. . . . I read each and every word. . . . Game Change is a great book." - Don Imus