Game Change

Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime is a 2010 book on the 2008 United States presidential election by journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann. Developed from over 300 interviews with people from various roles in the campaign’s explorations, proceedings, and aftermath, the book endeavors to provide a comprehensive analysis of Barack Obama’s victory. The book touches on components of different salience, from sensationalist headlines (such as that of John Edwards’ extramarital relationship) to Sarah Palin’s suspect qualifications for the vice presidency. The authors also analyze candidates such as Rudy Giuliani who didn’t make it to the final round, suggesting possible reasons why. The book culminates in a dramatic account of the fall 2008 election.

Game Change is split into three sections. The first and longest part concerns the Democratic primaries, in which Hillary Clinton faced off against Barack Obama. The second section summarizes the Republican primaries. The final section hones in on the last months of the campaign itself. Halperin and Heilemann make several original claims, which, after the book’s publication, were corroborated by people familiar with the people and moments involved. For example, they claim that Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid, who were then respectively U.S. senator and Senate Majority Leader, asked Obama to run back in 2006. They suspected that his candidacy would refresh the Democratic Party and catalyze new interest in people across its platform and at different levels of government. The authors present a direct account of a meeting between Clinton and her head pollster, Mark Penn, when Clinton alleged that Obama indirectly inflated his Iowa caucus ratings. They also claim that Clinton intended to emphasize Obama’s past drug use in order to generate aversion to his candidacy, but was urged not to by her advisors.

The authors explore the roots of Clinton’s desire to run for president, which they believe emerged before the 2004, not 2008, presidential campaign. Bill Clinton urged her to run, and her advisors cited many polls suggesting she had a fair chance. The tipping vote may have been that of her daughter, Chelsea, who recommended that she honor her promise to serve the state of New York as senator until her term ended. The authors claim that Bill Clinton was likely in an ongoing romantic relationship with someone else at least in the year 2006. They cite substantiating reports from Hillary Clinton’s advisors who conducted preemptive damage control.



The book also turns to John Edwards’s affair with his mistress, Rielle Hunter. According to the author’s sources, Edwards refused to cut Hunter out of his personal life when he was told the affair would imminently become public. The same advisors viewed Edwards as shortsighted and ill-tempered. Sarah Palin’s campaign as part of John McCain’s bid for the presidency was also afflicted with errors. After her advisors grew worried that Palin was failing to recall basic facts while training for the vice-presidential debates, they flew her to Arizona to train in close proximity to her family. She continued to perform poorly while preparing for her infamous interviews on primetime television and did not seem to have even preliminary knowledge of geography and United States history. She even believed that Saddam Hussein orchestrated the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a claim disproven.

Halperin and Heilemann conclude their book by recounting Obama’s inauguration and the aftermath. While selecting his cabinet members, Obama phoned Clinton, offering her the role of Secretary of State. At first, Clinton declined, saying that her husband’s legacy would become too strongly associated with Obama’s term. Obama persisted, ultimately convincing her to take the job until his reelection. Game Change illuminates how much luck, individual will, and accident factor into society’s most historical political outcomes.