The Scandals of Game Change
[Guest post by DRJ]
Political reporters John Heilemann and Mark Halperin have written a new book, Game Change, that will be released January 11. Here are some of the book’s bombshells:
The Harry Reid quote discussed earlier by Karl and Patterico that Obama is a “light-skinned” African American “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.”
Not surprisingly, the book apparently presents Sarah Palin in an unflattering light. From the publisher’s description: “Why did McCain make the novice governor of Alaska his running mate? And was Palin merely painfully out of her depth—or troubled in more serious ways?”
Clashes between Obama and Biden, including “that the two rarely spoke and aides not only kept Biden off internal conference calls but refused to even tell him they existed.”
A report Ted Kennedy was angry Clinton said “a few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee.”
Inside the John Edwards’ campaign meltdown, including the Rielle Hunter story.
Concerns in the McCain camp that Cindy McCain had an affair.
Imagine how many Washington campaign insiders and political reporters knew about these scandals but managed to keep them bottled up before the election. Except for the Sarah Palin stories, of course. The Palin reports were widely discussed by journalists, but stories that would damage the top Democratic candidates went largely unreported.
Amazing, isn’t it?
— DRJ
This is the same John Weaver, who floated the rumor of the McCain ‘affair’ with Vicki Isenman, I thought you couldn’t stoop lower than Schmidt but I suppose it is possible. So Obama held Biden, with the same regard most people should, yet the media didn’t figure this out.
ian cormac (cbea0c) — 1/9/2010 @ 6:43 pmHey I don’t let Joe Biden know about internal conference calls I have with my dog and cat; he’s not cleared for anything serious.
Mike Myers (3c9845) — 1/9/2010 @ 7:09 pmTwo comments:
1) During campaign season, trust the MSM to sit on anything that calls the fitness of Democrat candidates into question, and
2) they don’t call him Slow Joe Biden for nuthin’…
Generalmalaise (68a574) — 1/9/2010 @ 7:19 pmPalin has responded to the John Heilemann and Mark Halperin book.
From Politico:
Syrah (565238) — 1/9/2010 @ 7:32 pm“Her spokeswoman, Meghan Stapleton, said in a statement: “The Governor’s descriptions of these events are found in her book, ‘Going Rogue.’ Her descriptions are accurate. She was there. These reporters were not.”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31299.html
John Edwards was truly an amazing political character. It is amazing that he was the VP candidate for the Democrats in 2004 and that many people thought he was serious presidential material in 2008 when he was so clearly a fraud and phony that he might as well have had the word “phony” tattooed on his forehead. It was amazing how some in the press covered for him when they knew he had secrets to hide. And it is amazing that people who took his VP candidacy seriously think that their judgment of character is reliable enough to evaluate other VP candidates.
nohype (91f25b) — 1/9/2010 @ 9:40 pmnohype – Edwards would not even have been reelected Senator in North Carolina. I have no idea why people thought he was qualified for higher office.
daleyrocks (718861) — 1/9/2010 @ 9:46 pmbecause he was a fing Democrap and the MFM was pushing him?
/all it takes
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 1/9/2010 @ 10:11 pmThat’s the truth, forget the adultery for a minute, there’s the biggest house in the county when he was
ian cormac (cbea0c) — 1/9/2010 @ 10:17 pmtalking about ‘Two Americas’, the hedge fund that
foreclosed on properties in N. Orleans, not for the money but to study property, he pro choice stance, but his invocations of fetal claims to win law suits, have I covered all his hypocrisies
The funny thing, in the sense of watching a youtube video, is that our so-called “watch-dogs” of journalism only write these books after the show is over.
I’m sure they will be lining up for their Pulitzers in 2013.
Ag80 (76c798) — 1/9/2010 @ 10:20 pmOne wonders if AP will fact check this book as thoroughly as they did Sarah’s. For the Edwards references seem out of an episode of Jerry Springer, the statements about Sarah are obviously
ian cormac (cbea0c) — 1/9/2010 @ 10:38 pmfalse, even the Clinton statement about Obama seems forced
Yes, thank God for all of those MSM journalists our there fighting to bring facts to the American people.
They kept all of the BS under wraps and fought to get the Democrats elected. Makes me wonder about the sex lives and marriages of journalists. Hope they all end up in divorce court, for years, paying $500.00/hour lawyers.
Fitting Karma.
Jack (e383ed) — 1/10/2010 @ 8:16 amI wish I could say I am surprised at so much information being withheld until after the election.
But then again no law firm would hire Obama without looking at his college and HLS grades. Yet he was elected president without the press pushing him to release them.
Bernie Goldberg understated the problem when he called it a slobbering love affair.
MU789 (514c52) — 1/10/2010 @ 8:16 amSo true, #9… so true.
Generalmalaise (68a574) — 1/10/2010 @ 9:38 amHopefully, an outfit like the National Enquirer will fact check this masterpiece, “Game Change”.
Andrew (32d02c) — 1/10/2010 @ 9:47 amTo clear it all up, of course.
These tactics, namely the presentation of this book in election year, has alinsky written all over it. It is the politics of personal destruction over civilized debate about issues that need to be debated.
The real story is how Sarah Palin was attacked crippling democracy in Alaska, the personal destruction of Joe the Plumber, deliberately distorting tea party to the pornographic “teabagging”, Obama’s ties to ACORN and other anarchists poisoning academia, and the incestuous relationship he enjoys with his various czars, incompetent cabinet, corrupt committee chairmen, impotence in reigning in the House and Senate, setting up the CIA for failure and dithering on the troop surge to Afghanistan then turning around and complaining about the slow pace seeing results there.
Now that would be a book to read!
vet66 (9d1bb3) — 1/10/2010 @ 10:32 amIt is the politics of personal destruction over civilized debate about issues that need to be debated.
…and yet so utterly ironic is the fact that the first name (of two) you cite as the “real story” is none other than, Sarah Palin.
(heh…followed by Joe the Plumber)…
Funny stuff, vet66.
Dana (f64b7d) — 1/10/2010 @ 11:17 amHey, Andrew. You might ask John Edwards about that.
Also did you actually bring up “fact checking” with this party in charge? Really?
Not enough irony in your diet, apparently.
Eric Blair (df4ec8) — 1/10/2010 @ 11:42 amE.B.-
Andrew (32d02c) — 1/10/2010 @ 2:16 pmI’m not the regular “Andrew”, if it matters…and was just tryin’ to crack smart on this whole delicious Edwards thing.
Irony is seldom if ever lost on my simple and clear (usually!) mind…
Dana; the first three are victims while the rest are perpetrators of the politics of personal attacks.
vet66 (9d1bb3) — 1/10/2010 @ 2:40 pmvet66, oh gosh, I read through #15 too quickly (and reflexively). My apologies and thank you for pointing out the obvious to me.
Dana (f64b7d) — 1/10/2010 @ 2:48 pmPalin lived as clean a life as a politician can lead, even cleaning up the politics in her own state. Obama has never held a real job and has chosen to associate himself with racists, terrorists, machine politics and Marxists his entire life.
The choice of the media as to which one to laud and which one to deride, which one to protect and which one to attack, says all we need to know about how sick our society currently is. When you espouse a philosophy that thinks nothing of using force to bankrupt entire industries then what is a little personal destruction in the grand scheme of things?
Voluble (1e2a18) — 1/10/2010 @ 3:17 pmYeah, Dana, that didn’t seem the right response there, some comments here can drive people to distraction, getting us in part to take ‘our eyes
ian cormac (cbea0c) — 1/10/2010 @ 4:58 pmoff the ball’