Double Down: Game Change 2012

What a fun book! This was an absolute hoot: the story of the 2012 US elections, told with granular, grimy human details that are often (often!) very funny, even warm. I say this with some surprise. But maybe I'm just naive. I lived through the 2012 elections as a semi-engaged citizen: I mean, I watched the debates and had a general sense of who the GOP hopefuls were, and I had made up my mind of who to vote for (but mostly for a vague partisan feeling, rather than any granular understanding of specific policies). And I still saw them all - Obama, Romney, Ryan, Biden, Trump! - as relatively paper-thin representations of people, rather than people people.

Thanks to the author's fancy access, we get - instead - so much backstage humanity. And it's great. It made me admire Obama and his entourage even more than I already do, brainwashed as I am by their 8+ year long charm offensive on my demographic. Oh, Barry, I can't stay mad at you, despite all that NSA bullshit. But it also - whattttt - made me feel almost warm to Romney. Suddenly he became more than just the hilariously alienating Mormon plutocrat with the sculpted hair-face combo. Okay, I mean, he is that too, but he's also just a dude! A person with people feelings! And people failings (in both senses of the phrase).

In short, it made me see hyper-recent US history the way I see more ancient US history (e.g. 19th century politics, Civil War): with a warm, affectionate light, with less a sense of panic/fear (my usual feeling towards current politics) and more a feeling of forgiveness/equanimity (oh, Confederates). People became less villainous and infuriating, and instead become a bit hapless.

And, OH MAN, did it make me a Politico convert. And it made me miss Slate's Political Gabfest - oh wait, what am I saying? It's Friday - new episode day! Seriously, that podcast is all sorts of wonderful, go download it.

A note: Many other reviewers have commented on the writing style. It is indeed, well, grating. They write like two proper good ol' boys, with a (what I presume they see as) whimsical mish-mash of $1 words (“potentates”, etc.) and Dad jokes. If there is an opportunity to make a joke of something, they do. OH, HOW THEY DO. I admit this annoyed me a lot at first, but, like dads, eventually you just give in and let the chuckling commence.