Given that the entire point of this project is to distract myself from the current presidential election, it might seem like a dubious decision to read a book that's all about the 2008 cycle. However, it is on the list, and I figured I'd better get it done early rather than try to read it in October...
I had a really mixed reaction to this book. Part of that reaction is just due to the fact that I had forgotten so much of the race, and how crazy it felt at the time, and eight years ago suddenly feels like a different time altogether. But it's also because this is a book that's all about The Narrative in politics. Everything is about how well (or how poorly) various people in the race played the game, and nothing is about demographics, or GOTV organizations, or data. That's really disorienting after spending years reading Nate Silver and focusing on those fundamentals, rather than on how the political press will spin every gaff or gotcha moment in a debate.
It also reads a bit like political RPF fanfic, if I'm honest. The authors take care to note at the beginning of the book that they did numerous interviews with "most" of the main people focused on in the book, and years of research and blah blah blah, and explain how they differentiate between quotes and paraphrasing conversations that often were between only two people with no other witnesses. And yet there is so much editorializing about how all of the main players FELT about everything, and the motives behind it all, that I came away from it feeling less convinced by its accuracy rather than more. There are many "she may have said this, but what she was really feeling was totally different" stories, and it's a bit hard to take while living through the media's current narrative spinning about Clinton in particular.
Having said that, I had forgotten just how insane the sequence of events around John Edwards was, and even without any narrative editorializing the fact that he was still running for president (and thought he might win!) while in the middle of a love child scandal is incredible. So that was fairly exciting to relive.
I think my biggest takeaway from this book was honestly to avoid reading the horse race updates according to D.C. pundits. As I so wisely realized eight weeks ago, paying close attention to the media's narrative neither adds to my own understanding nor improves my mood. Let's see how well I can follow my own advice.
Grade: C
I had a really mixed reaction to this book. Part of that reaction is just due to the fact that I had forgotten so much of the race, and how crazy it felt at the time, and eight years ago suddenly feels like a different time altogether. But it's also because this is a book that's all about The Narrative in politics. Everything is about how well (or how poorly) various people in the race played the game, and nothing is about demographics, or GOTV organizations, or data. That's really disorienting after spending years reading Nate Silver and focusing on those fundamentals, rather than on how the political press will spin every gaff or gotcha moment in a debate.
It also reads a bit like political RPF fanfic, if I'm honest. The authors take care to note at the beginning of the book that they did numerous interviews with "most" of the main people focused on in the book, and years of research and blah blah blah, and explain how they differentiate between quotes and paraphrasing conversations that often were between only two people with no other witnesses. And yet there is so much editorializing about how all of the main players FELT about everything, and the motives behind it all, that I came away from it feeling less convinced by its accuracy rather than more. There are many "she may have said this, but what she was really feeling was totally different" stories, and it's a bit hard to take while living through the media's current narrative spinning about Clinton in particular.
Having said that, I had forgotten just how insane the sequence of events around John Edwards was, and even without any narrative editorializing the fact that he was still running for president (and thought he might win!) while in the middle of a love child scandal is incredible. So that was fairly exciting to relive.
I think my biggest takeaway from this book was honestly to avoid reading the horse race updates according to D.C. pundits. As I so wisely realized eight weeks ago, paying close attention to the media's narrative neither adds to my own understanding nor improves my mood. Let's see how well I can follow my own advice.
Grade: C
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