“The first rule of politics is ‘Do unto others before they do unto you.’ ”

Book Review:

Review by Poornima Apte  (JAN 25, 2011)

It was during the 2008 presidential race that author Christopher Buckley’s delightful novel, Supreme Courtship, was released. Presciently, in the book, he had pitted two characters against each other: a senator who had run for president, served as chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, and who “just couldn’t shut up,” against a “glasses-wearing, gun-toting television hottie.” Months after the novel was conceived, Governor Sarah Palin turned out to be a nominee for Vice President running against then Senator Joe Biden. It truly was a case of life imitating fiction, Buckely later recalled in an interview. “I am announcing my retirement from satire,” he joked.

This “anything can happen here, it’s Washington” attitude also permeates a much buzzed about new novel, O, by a Washington insider who prefers to remain anonymous. Press materials about the author state merely: “The author is someone who has been in the room with Barack Obama and knows his world intimately.” This might indeed be the case, but that intimate knowledge of the president’s world unfortunately does not translate well on to the page. Even if the book promises to give us a close look at what the President—referred in the book just as “O”—is thinking, there is not much here that is new. The cool, collected temperament, the slight air of haughtiness, the “no-drama” Obama, even the smoking habit—are all old stomping grounds for avid political junkies.

O: A Presidential Novel is set mostly in the immediate future and is about the 2012 presidential campaign. As the novel opens, O’s campaign manager, Stru Trask has to abruptly quit after he’s caught in an inappropriate relationship with a high school senior—she works for an escort service Trask patronizes. Enter Cal Regan, the new campaign manager, an old Chicago hand, who forms the central glue in the novel. For a while, Cal himself is going out with a young journalist, Maddy Cohan, but she breaks off the relationship in the interest of objectivity after she is assigned to work on the campaign trail.

O’s opponent is not The Barracuda, as he describes Sarah Palin, but Tom “Terrific” Morrison. While readers might speculate about which real life person each character in the book most closely relates to, there’s probably not an equivalent for Tom Morrison out there. He seems to be a cross between General Colin Powell and Governor Mitt Romney.

Among the most recognizable characters in the book is Bianca Stefani, publisher of the online magazine Stefani Report, who appears to be modeled after Arianna Huffington. It is this “Stefani Report” that breaks a crucial story during the campaign trail—potentially threatening to disgrace Cal Regan by showing him to be an inept campaign manager.

The Morrison campaign is not without troubles of its own. Channing-Mills, a company for which Morrison once worked as CEO, is under investigation by the FBI for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. And Morrison just might have his fingers dirty.

As the story chugs along, the author peppers the novel with truisms about Washington but many of them ring trite. “Paradoxes threatened to suffocate every initiative,” the author writes. “Everything mattered and nothing mattered. Everything was urgent and nothing had priority. Hurry up! Not so fast!”

The story’s characters are also often prone to immature impulses. It is hard to believe for example, that on the eve of the Democractic Convention, O’s campaign manager would get wildly drunk and sleep with a young press aide, only to recall none of it the next morning. Then there’s Walter Lafontaine, a young man who pins his hopes on “O” during the 2008 campaign but has since been rebuffed by the administration. Walter’s reaction to the administration’s indifference comes across as adolescent petulance rather than the disappointment of a mature adult.

Even if O doesn’t quite live up to its promise or offer any profound political insights, it finally is a breezy tale—one that hardcore political junkies might enjoy. As the novel reaches the end, right up to the eve of Election Day, we watch as the pace picks up, and as each campaign has the potential to be derailed by one misplaced comment or one faulty judgment.

As for the president’s re-election campaign, by the time the curtain falls down on O, the race has become a dead heat, all because a certain rich man decided to drop a precious nugget of information at an inopportune moment. It might sound implausible that such huge outcomes can turn on so little but then again, this is Washington. As Christopher Buckley once pointed out, stranger things have happened here.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 5 readers
PUBLISHER:	Simon & Schuster (January 25, 2011)
REVIEWER:	Poornima Apte
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Anonymous
EXTRAS:	Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	More for political junkies: Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley Put a Lid on It by Donald E. Westlake

Bibliography:

• O: A Presidential Novel (January 2011)

“Obama’s tacit admission was equally revealing. As a private man, his signal characteristics were supreme self-possession and self-reliance. He needed no one, was better and smarter, cooler and more composed, than anyone around him. But here he was conceding to Clinton that her help was crucial to the success of his presidency. For the first time, after all the bitterness and resentment that had passed between them as combatants, they had suddenly metamorphosed into different creatures with each other – human beings.”

Book Review:

Review by Jana L. Perskie (MAR 1, 2010)

I am rating this journalistic account of the 2008 US political election 4.5 stars out of 5. While I do not consider Game Change to be serious reporting at its best, I was unable to put the book down. That must count for something….perhaps my desire to read the prurient and live it vicariously.

I am a world class political junkie! I am also a secret National Enquirer reader – something I do while waiting in super market lines. So, reading Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime was like eating a scrumptious hot fudge nut sundae for me…in a literary fashion. Lots of yummy stuff, but frequently lacking in nutrition.

While authors John Heilemann’s and Mark Halperin’s reporting and writing styles are quite good, they do not begin to compare to the outstanding historical narrative found in Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Theodore White’s “Making of the President” series. White earned himself the Pulitzer in 1961 for his extraordinary journalistic interpretation of American politics during the 1960 presidential election with, The Making of the President 1960. He was able to portray, so vividly, the characters of the several candidates who were in the race for the presidency back then, as well as their campaign strategies and tactics – the good, the bad and the ugly. What struck me most when I first read White’s book in my teens, (yes, I became a political junkie at a very early age), and during subsequent readings, was the extraordinary skill with which the author wove fact and anecdote into an all encompassing account which so clearly explained the outcome and meaning of the election.

Mr. White was, to my knowledge, the first to chronicle presidential campaigns in such a way as to emphasize their drama, and impart meaning to what often seemed chaos. He wrote with logic and good sense in books filled with penetrating insights and much anecdotal description. White was the forerunner of such outstanding political journalists as David Halberstam and Bob Woodward, and now John Heilemann and Mark Halperin. However, there is little of the smarmy in Mr. White’s accounts. Perhaps it was the times. I mean, the 21st century cannot lay claim to being the first with eccentric, to say the least, exotic, and badly behaved candidates. Can you imagine what kind of lascivious revelations would have come from JFK’s campaign if written about today?

Taking my, (intellectual), preference for Mr White’s presidential reporting into consideration, I absolutely loved reading Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime. The book is like a journalistic combo – reportage à la Theodore White, (though not as tight, complete or informative), combined with a style of sensational and anecdotal writing and editing one expects to see in such tabloids as the National Enquirer. I would say that political documentation doesn’t always have to be serious, but some of the goings-on during this campaign are very serious and disturbing…although funny and ever so revealing. I read the book compulsively. The narrative is not trivial, but frequently mind boggling and very provocative.

John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, both talented writers, researchers, and political addicts themselves, lucked-out this past campaign cycle, as it doesn’t get more dramatic than this. Character assassinations, low blow ad campaigns, (what is “truth” after all?), delusional candidates, and enormous egos abounded during the 2007-2008 presidential roadshow. Add to the mix, the first African American to run for president against the first woman to run for this office – and a Clinton to boot – alongside Sarah Palin, “the Alaskan barracuda,” and the aging John McCain, who was frequently not up to his game!

I followed this campaign the way some folks follow “American Idol,” and thought I knew a lot of the up front operations and behind scenes action. Wrong! There was much information, of the personal sort, that I was not aware of and would have really disbelieved if I had read it in a novel. An example – the serious flaws in Elizabeth Edwards’ personality even before her reveletion that she had cancer in 2006, at the end of the Kerry – Edwards campaign. This information, backed up by several on-the-record interviews by staff people from the Edwards campaign, was a real “Wowser,” as Mrs. Edwards used to be a real idol of mine. Talk about disappointment! And then there is the info about the McCain’s constant quarreling, and the fact that the Clinton campaign had to set up a secret 3 person war room to deal with Bill’s tendency to still “fool around.”

The only one to come out of the brawl almost squeaky clean is Barak Obama and his wife, Michelle. The authors’ decision to go for the tabloid approach, especially when writing about the candidates marriages, obviously makes for a more salient reading experience. But perhaps it is not so strange because “lurid” and “shocking” is where the money is at. I wonder if Woodward and Bernstein have found themselves in the predicament of writing “straight journalism,” or going for the sensationalism of exploring/exploiting the personal lives of their subjects. After all, we have had some extremely successful presidents with lousy marriages and, conversely, unsuccessful presidents with wonderful relationships with their mates. But now the candidates’ better halves play such an important role in the decision to vote for or against a ticket, especially when so many of our electorate are rapidly becoming Independents. I don’t think that the spouses ever had this much impact on a race before 2008.

I don’t know whether Obama was the front-runner with Heilemann and Halperin, even in bad times, because he was the most open and honest of the candidates, or because he was able to fend off negative attacks better, or maybe most reporters favored him more than his fellow campaigners, thus fewer media attacks and more media promotion. But he and wife Michelle seemed able to keep their heads even when the going got really tough. Also, unlike the Clinton and McCain-Palin campaigns, Obama’s was much more organized and on-message. There was little back-stabbing amongst staff members here. The Clintons’ managers, as well as Senator McCain’s and Governor Palin’s, were constantly at each other’s throats. On the other hand, the Obama advisors, campaign staff and volunteers had an open line of communication and what seemed to actually be a common purpose and comradery – rare in political campaigns.

One of my favorite moments took place just before a Republican debate, when John McCain, Mike Huckabee and Rudy Giuliani lined up at the urinals and started discussing about how much they disliked Mitt Romney – joking about the former Massachusetts governor. A sudden hush descended when they realized Romney was standing right behind them.

John Heilemann and Mark Halperin interviewed more than 200 people intimately involved in the race for the White House, receiving e-mails, memos, recordings and notes from willing interviewees to flesh out details. Many of the interviews were off record.

Apart from my vicarious, insider peek at all the outrageous and entertaining material from the 2008 electoral pageant which fills the book’s pages, I wonder why much of it was written. I mean, do I need to know that Senator McCain hangs-out wearing boxer shorts and a dress shirt? Scary image!!!

Game Change might provide a good read, but it is a sad commentary on our political process and those who can afford to make the race for president – both monetarily, emotionally and reputation-wise. How many exceptional potential presidential and congressional candidates are out there in the American heartland – those who would truly serve the people without worrying about automatically blocking the other party’s itinerary and worrying about the next election the day after the last one? Again, it is all about dollars and the reluctance of many to subject themselves and their families to the scrutiny and scandal mongering that accompanies running for office.

This book makes clear how many of those who would lead us are unworthy to do so. They place politics and personal power over the common good. No, politics is not a nice business, and many of those who represent us are not the nice and worthy people they pretend to be. Still, if you are a political junkie like me, this is a must read – it is really fun, if you don’t mind taking pleasure from others’ misfortune!

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 870 readers
PUBLISHER:	Harper; 1st edition (January 11, 2010)
REVIEWER:	Jana L. Perksie
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	John Heilemann Mark Halperin
EXTRAS:	Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Read our review of: Renegade: The Making of a President And our other review of Game Change

Bibliography:

• Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime (2010)
• Double Down: Game Change 2012 (November 2013)

“His personal challenge was to be Renegade in more than just his Secret Service code name. He needed to change the nation before the nation’s capital changed him; to lead in his own unconventional style, not to follow the familiar path of presidents past; to bend to the arc of history before unseen hands wrested it from his grasp.”

Book Review:

Reviewed by Jana L. Perskie (JUL 04, 2009)

On March 18, 2008, presidential candidate Barak H. Obama spoke to the American people from Philadelphia. He addressed race in a manner that has rarely been discussed in a public forum before. But Barak Obama was a historical candidate running for the presidency of the United States of America in extraordinary times. And he spoke as someone from both inside and outside the African American experience.

Two days after this address, he approached award-winning journalist Richard Wolffe, who had been covering the Obama campaign for Newsweek Magazine ever since the candidate announced his run for the presidency on January 16, 2007. Wolffe, while interviewing Obama, told him that his story was largely unknown, even though he had written a bestselling memoir, Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.  Wolffe said, “People want to know who you are. Who are you? That’s the question people are going to ask six months from now, and six years from now.” The candidate agreed with Wolffe’s assessment, and asked the journalist to write a “Theodore White kind of book” about the campaign. Mr. White won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction in 1962 for his book, The Making of the President, 1960, about the campaign between Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy. He then went on to write outstanding books about the 1964,1968 and 1972 presidential campaigns.

Wolffe dismissed the notion of authoring a “Making of a Present-type” book. He said there was already too much press coverage. He told the future president, to my great dismay, that “publishers want partisan screeds nowadays. They don’t want reporting.” Wolffe then went on to say or think, “Teddy White. How archaic. The poor man, (Obama), doesn’t understand the media.” The condescension of the author is outrageous, as he terms obsolete the ever relevant Mr. White, and the “what sells in print naivetee” of Obama. That was a real turn-off for me.

Given the very nature of candidate Barak Obama, his lovely family, the historical significance of an African-American man entering the presidential campaign, with a woman, Hillary Clinton, as his leading contender, his eventual opponent, John McCain, with his own historic and dramatic story, and the unlikely choice of Sarah Palin as the Republican vice-presidential candidate – a journalist would have to be a total flop to write a bad book about such events. And Richard Wolffe is certainly no slouch.

Drawing on some twenty-four months of coverage and countless interviews with Barak Obama, Wolffe has attempted to answer the “Who is he?” question.

Because of all the media coverage of all the candidates and campaigns, there is little that surprised me in “Renegade,” which, by the way, was the Secret Service’s name for Obama during his candidacy. There are a few new tidbits, especially about events surrounding Hillary Clinton’s appointment as Secretary of State. I did find myself wishing for a Theodore White kind of book, however, with more objective coverage about both Democrat and Republican campaigns, their conventions and platforms, and more gossipy details of infighting, etc., from behind the scenes.

“Renegade gives us a more biased look at the amazing story of Barak Obama’s presidential run and his big win in November 2008. The reader is given a ring-side seat to the candidates long journey – from freshman senator, (99th out of 100 senators in seniority), who had trouble gaining admission to the Democratic convention in 2000 – to President of the United States. What a ride! Yet, there is something lacking here – perhaps the tension and excitement which would have come from a more bipartisan coverage.

I enjoyed the read, but I was a Hillary supporter long before I fell in line and campaigned for Obama. I would have liked to read, at the very least, an Obama & staff summary of why she lost the nomination. What were her biggest mistakes? The biggest mistakes her staff made? I’d like to know why in the world John McCain selected Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential candidate.

There are portions of the book, however, which are quite moving. I learned that the future President Obama is, in fact, a man of moral character, a family man and a brilliant man, with a natural ability to lead and the strength to tackle difficult issues with tremendous energy, and an openness and realistic optimism that inspires.

There are passages like: “His memoir revolved around something and someone not present in his childhood: his African father and his African American identity. Even that was a partial view, obscuring the role of his mother and grandparents: the white family that raised him. He was obviously black, yet he grew up with a white perspective. He was American, yet he grew up with an international perspective. He was a Democrat who sought to understand the Republican perspective. He was a moderate who spoke the language of radical change, and a progressive who spoke in moderate tones.” Now that is wonderful descriptive writing and right on target!

Unfortunately, Mr. Wolffe’s prose does not flow. He is all over the place with his timelines. In one paragraph he writes about an incident which takes place during the campaign for the Democratic Party’s nomination, and two paragraphs later he has the now president-elect making cabinet decisions. A few pages along, the reader gets excerpts of Obama debating McCain, and then we are back at the Iowa, and Nevada caucuses. There are few segues which allow the reader to smoothly make the transitions in time and place. I really expected more from this journalist, whom I respect and admire. And I would like to know who edited the book!

So, if you are an Obama fan, as I am, wait for this book to come out in a paperback, or buy it used, or borrow it. Save yourself the money of the hardback copy, because even though the book is interesting, it is not a “Must Read!” I give it 3.5 Stars for the writing and 4 Stars for the content.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 66 readers
PUBLISHER:	Crown (June 2, 2009)
REVIEWER:	Jana L. Perskie
AMAZON PAGE:	Renegade: The Making of a President
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Richard Wolfe
EXTRAS:	Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barak Obama

Bibliography:

• Renegade: The Making of a President (June 2009)

With John Authers:

• The Victim’s Fortune: Inside the Epic Battle over the Debts of the Holocaust (2002)

With José Andrés:

• Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America (November 2005)
• Made in Spain: Spanish Dishes for the American Kitchen (November 2008)