Saturday, October 03, 2009

Books about the '08 campaign

I consider the 2008 election something of a subject specialty, so I've been trying to be strategic about reading new books about the election. I just read The Battle for America 2008 by Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson. Balz is with The Washington Post, so this is a fairly straightforward political account of the election, with a few minor new revelations. Interesting things that jumped out at me: They report that Democrat Ted Kennedy made a condition of his early endorsement that Obama address health care reform in his first year. And, they go into brutal and hilarious detail about Republican candidate Fred Thompson's reluctance to actually campaign for the presidency.
The other book I'm reading now is Renegade: The Making of a President, by Richard Wolfe, who covered the election for Newsweek. I'm just starting this one, but the book's selling point is that Wolfe got the most inside access to the Obama campaign.
Other campaign books I'd like to read:

1 comment:

Kathryn said...

I'd love to read these--but I have a huge pile of academic reading about the linen trade (fascinating, truly!) to get through in the next three weeks. I don't have an "updater" for your blog, so I thought you hadn't posted in about a month! Email me and let me know how to become a "follower" if it's easy!--K