Customer Reviews

The Battle for America 2008: The Story of an Extraordinary Election

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Post mortem books on presidential election campaigns are nothing new and there have been many of them, but 2008 was truly one of those landmark campaigns that truly warrants re-examination. The 2008 campaign was remarkable for so many reasons as the candidates competing reflected a growing diversity of voice and highlighted various tensions in American society, particularly when it came to class, gender, ideology, and of course race. It was also one of those rare races where neither the incumbent nor the incumbent vice-president was a candidate; a veritable clean slate for both parties. The campaign was also played out against the backdrop of ongoing wars, a slowing economy and widespread concern over the future direction of the country. And rather than focusing solely on the candidates and what happened Balz and Johnson focus almost as much on what was going on in the minds of voters.

As with most campaign post mortems Balz and Johnson start as the various candidates announce their intention to run quickly, reminding viewers that what turned out did not always seem inevitable or even likely at the time. The Obama candidacy actually started far earlier than perhaps many of us remember and his early performances were staggeringly bad, something the authors capture quite well. At a town hall meeting with union members Senator John Edwards comes out swinging with his proposal health care, only to be one-upped by Senator Hillary Clinton who obviously drew off her in-depth knowledge on the subject. By comparison then-Senator Obama seemed completely out of his league when his turn came and performance was dismal. The Obama machine that would come to dominate later on had not yet gelled, and for a while it looked like it would never get the chance.

Both Balz and Johnson are fantastic at bringing the highs and lows of the campaign trail back to life. Even though you know the inevitable outcomes they still keep the retelling lively and gripping. Balz's insight a the lead political reporter for the Washington Post also gave him greater access to the candidates and provided much of the material here that give you greater insight into their character. But rather than focusing solely on the candidates and what happened "The Battle for America" provides great insight into the minds of the voters and the tectonic shifts occurring in American society, for the 2008 election was as much about the changes the electorate was undergoing as the candidates who were running. "Battle for America" is an excellent lively page-turner that also is more interesting for it's insight into the changing face of America. Well worth the read!

It's refreshing to read a historical account that is both authentic and also pleasant to read. I couldn't put this book down! The authors cover the rise and fall of McCain's campaign, the heartbreaking failure of a forthright conservative. They talk about Hillary's equally disastrous campaign, and the frequent missteps of her advisors. It's nice to read a book that really attempts to see the entire process as a whole. In all my years, I cannot remember a more riveting Presidential election.

And of course, they cover the historically and politically significant election of Barack Obama, the nation's first black president. People tend to be pretty opinionated when it comes to their political reading, but I think that this book would be enjoyable to both sides of the aisle because it covers both campaigns pretty equally. It's a great read! I carried it around in my purse for three days until I finished it, so it's a page-turner! Recommended!

I walked into Barnes and Noble today expecting to read the book while I finished my coffee. I finished my coffee but I couldn't put the book down. The book brought back all the memories of the 2008 Elections. The book puts you right in the middle of the Democratic Primaries. It brought back the happiness of the Iowa Caucuses and the disappointments of the New Hampshire Primaries(I was a Field Organizer for Barack Obama which explains the disappointment)This was a much better book then Renegade by Richard Wolffe because it goes behind the scenes of all three major candidates campaigns. I would have read the whole book if it wasn't for Barnes and Noble closing. I plan on going back and finishing the last 100 pages tomorrow. I highly recommend this book to anyone who paid attention to the 2008 Elections.

Beyond what seems to me a curious title, I liked this book immensely. Frankly, if it weren't for the first class co-authors, I might have let this book and subject pass by. Like most that live in the metro Washington, D.C. area, I feel steeped in national politics and the 2008 campaign and generally don't think there is a lot more that needs to be said. With this book, Balz and Johnson set me straight. If journalism is the first draft of history, this could be the final draft. Thorough, fair, well-paced, insightful and entertaining, it compares very favorably to Theodore White's classic, the Making of the President, 1960. Simply put, this is an excellent read.

Mr. Balz and Mr. Johnson are both excellent political journalists for the Washington Post. In this book, they've written a succinct volume telling the story of the 2008 election season, from about mid-2006 to Inauguration Day 2009.

As a political junkie, I found it exhilarating to read a concise narrative of the nomination and election battles I watched so closely for a year and a half. The authors are very skilled at telling that familiar story with page-turing excitement. With that in mind, I was disappointed with what they left out. Mainly, the authors focus on the Obama, Clinton, and McCain campaigns. For the most part, they dismiss the other nominees. I felt that Edwards, Richardson, Romney, Huckabee, Tancredo, and others deserved a little more treatment. Ron Paul, a unique candidate that had a remarkable fundraising apparatus, was not even mentioned. These people staked out positions that influenced the front-runners and political discourse in one way or another.

The best excels most in the sections about the Obama/Clinton nomination battle. They had access to inside sources in both campaigns that provided me with details I never knew about. I knew there was dissension in the Clinton campaign, but I never knew how bad it really was. I also never knew how little Obama's campaign had to work with until after Iowa, and how frustrated Obama and his campaign got at times. The authors access to those two democratic campaigns was excellent. The section dealing with Ted Kennedy's endorsement is hands down the best part of the book. The descriptions of phone conversations between Kennedy, Edwards, Hillary and Bill Clinton, and Obama are immensely fascinating. Ie: when Kennedy decided to back Obama, he told him he'd do it only if his first priority as president was health care. Well, look what's happening now. Anyone with interest in the deomcratic primary and how Obama won/Clinton lost should read this book.

It seems Balz and Johnson had less exclusive access to the Republican side of things. As a result, they devote less than half as much space to their nomination process. They included an interesting section on the McCain campaign's comeback from near-financial ruin, but mostly their analysis of the republican campaigns sounded like what the Washington Post reported at the time. There was an interesting section on how he chose Sarah Palin as running mate and her effect on the election, but also nothing really new there. Also, the effect of the George W. Bush presidency was not put in context and its effect on the election was understated. You have to understand what people were reacting to in order to make sense of the reaction.

The analysis of the election results was not very insightful either. You can get a better explanation of voting shifts in Chuck Todd's "How Barack Obama Won." However, quantitative analysis was not the focus of this book.

Overall, Balz and Johnson succeed admirably at capturing the essence of the 2008 election campaigns. They are very good at assessing media and public reaction to various events during the campaigns, and the general sense of how these politicians were being received.

Another must for anyone interested in current politics.

Not sure I wanted to relive the excruciatingly long presidential campaign, I checked out the reviews to see if there were any blockbuster revelations in The Battle for America 2008. There were no Drudge-worthy tidbits in the book, but the reviews promised that the insider look at how the McCain campaign chose Sarah Palin as running mate would be worthwhile. So I got the book intending to skim it for the best bits, but I found myself wrapped up in the story well before Palin reared her head.

The first entertaining factoid was Lindsey Graham divulging that Hillary Clinton had matched him and John McCain shot for shot in a vodka-drinking contest during a congressional trip to the Baltic region. Now THIS was the kind of in-depth behind-the-scenes gossip that I wanted to hear about. Having survived two years of policy issues and campaign strategy, I was ready for a silly story about drunken senators.

Another sequence of events that I enjoyed reading about here, since I missed it at the time, was the behind-the-scenes account of the battle for Ted Kennedy's endorsement. Apparently this was enormously important to the candidates, and even though Kennedy had said he was not going to endorse anyone, no one wanted to risk missing out if he changed his mind. As it happened, his endorsement was indeed up for grabs and the candidates managed to annoy him into awarding it to the least irritating among them. Not that Obama wasn't annoying to Kennedy - Kennedy had to tell him to stop groveling during a phone conversation - but Obama wasn't as arrogant as John Edwards or as intimidating as Bill Clinton was on behalf of Hillary. Bill tried calling in favors he believed Kennedy owed him, and Kennedy was put off by Bill's "trashing" of Obama.

And of course the familiar tale of the McCain campaign choosing Sarah Palin as running mate and her subsequent successes and failures were almost as much fun to read about as it was to watch at the time, even though there was nothing new to learn on this subject. Some stories you can hear over and over again.

Balz and Johnson put together an easily readable book about the two major campaigns of 2008. Obama vs Clinton for the Democratic nomination and then Obama vs McCain for the presidency. They do talk briefly about the other "players", Edwards, Richardson, Romney, Huckaby, etc. The part about Fred Thompson's "campaign" was very funny; "he wanted to be president, he just didn't want to run for the office!"

To those of us "political animals", 2007 and 2008 were almost made perfect by the machinations of the Democrats and the Republicans. Every day was interesting, politically, in one way or another. Johnson and Balz capture almost perfectly the politicians, the aides, the focus groups, and the electorate. I've read only one other campaign book, so far, Richard Wolffe's Renegade, which I also gave five stars.

Oh, and I wish the publisher would price the audio version of this book at a price lower than the $69.00 it's currently priced at.

I see that the biggest complaint from the lowest reviews here is that this book gave no new information, nothing that wasn't already known if you were glued to the Internet or the cable news shows prior to the election. That's fine for folks who could do that, but for me - working all day, taking care of my family at night and then off to bed - there was no time for such in-depth research online and on TV. I read and watched what I could to make an informed decision on who to vote for, but did not have the time to explore all the behind-the-scenes goings on that marked this remarkable election cycle. So this book was mostly new to me, and very informative. I appreciate that both sides are shown in their good and bad lights, and that no bias is brought to bear on their reporting. I recommend this to anyone who was not able to spend much time reviewing election analysis as it was happening, and would like a concise overview now.

If you followed the 2008 election, there's not a lot of new information here. The book is lacking in insight and analysis; pretty much covering events as they moved forward. Particularly surprising is the book's structure with most of the narrative early in the election. The closer the story gets to November, 2008, the faster the pace with just a chronology of events and journalistic highlights. The book is fine as a historical text but if you want to know more about what will be seen as a landmark election, go elsewhere.

This story reads like a novel, it has details that were never revealed and places things that happened in passing into the right context with the help of hindsight. I enjoyed every minute of the long read.