Game Change Book Just Gossip?

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: Harper; X edition (January 11, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061733636
• ISBN-13: 978-0061733635
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  

Most of the sources in this book are not identified, and that's no surprise, because most of this book is pure tabloid gossip. Gossip is fun, but when people close to a candidate -- the inner circle -- spill their guts to reporters for whatever purpose -- revenge? vindication? a chance to say "it wasn't my fault"? -- the result is merely embarrassing. I didn't need to know this stuff and, frankly, I don't know more about the 2008 campaign because I've read this book.

What is interesting about this book is its negative portrayal of virtually every woman involved in the campaign, most of whom are described, at one point or another in the account, as "hysterical," "paranoid," "unstable," "emotionally unbalanced," loud, abrasive -- you get the picture. Only Michelle Obama escapes such stereotyping and, while I love Michelle to bits, I can't believe that she was the only sane woman on the 2008 campaign trail.

Intelligent, educated, ambitious, women aren't crazy, dear authors: they just have a low tolerance for incompetent, narcissistic, macho guys. Cases in point: (1) Palin may be no genius, and may have been totally unprepared to run for high office, but her handlers in the McCain campaign had virtually no idea how to prepare her for interviews, public scrutiny and a national campaign. She shut down, not because she's "mentally unstable," but because she was overloaded and unprepared; (2) Elizabeth Edwards had plenty to scream about; what she should have done was hit her intellectually superficial, immoral lunkhead of a husband with a brick; (3) of course Hillary was stunned and upset by her loss in Iowa; she'd been told by everyone who worked for her, and the media, that she was a front runner. What did you expect her to do; slap her thighs and yodel "the sun will come out tommorrow"?

The fact that the authors were merely repeating gossip, rather than examining what was said critically, does not respond to the above criticism, but merely proves the point that this book is insider back-biting and a waste of time. Verdict: Undocumented, tabloid, sexist and not credible. (rctny)


For Further Info: 
Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime