The Price of Politics

By: Bob Woodward

Narrated by: Boyd Gaines

Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

Based on 18 months of reporting, Woodward's 17th book The Price of Politics is an intimate, documented examination of how President Obama and the highest profile Republican and Democratic leaders in the United States Congress attempted to restore the American economy and improve the federal government's fiscal condition over three and one half years. Drawn from memos, contemporaneous meeting notes, emails, and in-depth interviews with the central players, The Price of Politics addresses the key issue of the presidential and congressional campaigns: the condition of the American economy and how and why we got there.

Providing verbatim, day-by-day, even hour-by-hour accounts, the book shows what really happened, what drove the debates, negotiations, and struggles that define, and will continue to define, the American future.

©2012 Bob Woodward (P)2012 Simon & Schuster

Down the middle account

What did you love best about The Price of Politics?

Overall, I thought this book was very even handed showing both parties strengths and weakness. Bob Woodard did a very detail account of going behind the scene to expose how complicated this political discussion was. He also captured the divides within each camp which convoluted the negotiation and even caused a having this debt ceiling crisis done one month earlier (as oppose to delaying the decision to the failed Super Committee). My only complaint is how detailed Bob did go within this book. Did I really need to know that Senator Jon Kyl rented equipment by the hour to do yard work? There were other passages that I felt didn’t add to the over story of this crisis. However, those personal quirks didn’t detract too much from this good book.

caught my interest and kept it.

I am by no means a political junky, I would never represent myself to be. I can hardly keep the names of the folks on TV straight. That being said I really liked this book.
I actually downloaded this because I had a long car trip coming up with my elderly father who likes to lecture me on subjects that frankly make no sense to anyone except him and I hoped it would keep him interested.
It worked for him for a while but I was totally fascinated, he actually wound up sleeping most of the way so I could enjoy this book in peace.
It is really a well researched look into the White House and the people that we still see in the news today. For someone such as myself who may watch the news at night but does not follow politics as closely as I obviously should it gives a very indepth look at what was happening back in 2007 and gave me a much better understanding of all the gamesmanship. It gave me a fairly good background on the individual players involved including their strenghts and weakness's both physical and emotional. I could picture Boehner with his drink, smoking while Obama had his iced tea, likely envying that smoke.
It pointed out that they were human and sometimes were just trying to avoid being thrown under the bus such as when the Republicans walked away from the table after being told the Democratics were planning to do this same thing only to be vilified in the press. Sometimes there is no right answer.
It just made me question why the my way or the highway attitude seemed so prevelant, why the seemed to be able to get to say 800 billion but then tried to get to the next step they seemed to have to start all over again and everyone would walk away with their hands in the air. Maybe I did not understand all the terminology, I thought I did but it just seemed to be that these guys were incredibly stubborn and unwilling to compromise even when they know what the outcome would be if they fail to make a deal. It almost appears that they enjoy playing chicken which just left me scratching my head.

Hardcore wonkery!

Most of the book consists of re-hashes of daily meetings of the president and congressional figures over the debt ceiling crisis, with balanced re-hashing from all sides' points of view.

All citizens must become Informed !

Would you consider the audio edition of The Price of Politics to be better than the print version?

No opinion, I have not reviewed the print version.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Price of Politics?

The 'insider' interviews of what was being said as heard by opposing participants.

What does Boyd Gaines bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Tones and inflections that add audible adjectives to the meaning of the narrative.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Gridlock resulting from mutual arrogance !

Any additional comments?

In this election year, this is a very timely book. Everyone needs to read the story and determine for themselves the elements of fact and fiction that has tied our country into a knot.

Making the Sausage

Even though this book is about as gripping as watching C-Span, I still rank it as one of my favorite reads because of how much it reveals not only about Washington politics, but the true depth of the US debt crisis. I have been reading other books such as The Real Crash by Peter Schiff and Endgame by John Mauldin that have been panned as being too alarmist and radical for suggesting the possibility of future weakness is the US government bond market. Bob Woodward's account reveals that by the end of the debt ceiling debate in 2011, Timothy Geithner was warning that we were literally hours away from a market panic, followed by the failure of a US bond auction that would set off a worldwide financial meltdown and a depression that would be worse than in the 1930's and the effect would resonate for generations. The deal that finally averted this disaster resolved nothing and simply kicked the can down the road until after the election. Round two is known as the fiscal cliff.

Painfully, Alarmingly Bor-r-ring!

I thought it was difficult and exasperating to live through the manufactured debt ceiling crisis on the outside, as a citizen, watching our political "leaders" give priority to playing their own ideological games over the national, and indeed international, interest. None of the players come off well, least of all the Obama White House, so I'm glad I listened to most of this after the election. Whether this coloration reflects reality or just Woodward's preferences and ease of access to sources is open to question.

As someone with experience in both legislative and fiscal matters in Washington, I found the level of detail excruciating and am amazed that I actually plowed through it all, albeit not always with full attention. Now I realize that what can seem fascinating if you're on the inside is only tedious and frustrating to those in a more real world. The constant barrage of proposals for multi-billions and trillions of expenditure cuts, along with the [to me] incomprehensible resistance to including revenue increases and even more to allowing the debt ceiling increase, left me dazed and groping for some semblance of what all this means in the real world.

I'll end with two observations: The first is one I have often felt, which is fury at George W. Bush and those who went along with him in Congress for throwing away in a nano-second the hard-won surplus of the Clinton years in favor of an irresponsible insistence on both guns and butter, huge tax cuts and enormous increases in military/security spending. The second is a new one. Previously I had felt some regret that many of Bob Woodward's books are available only in abridged versions from Audible. Now I realize that this is a blessing. If only this one had been abridged, it might have been bearable.

Interesting Detail, Good Information

I must not be one for political books, this is about the 3rd one i've tried, and i find them very difficult to get through. I vow not to buy another one no matter how intriguing it sounds (fingers crossed). I did find the details very interesting considering i recall most of these stories as they played out in the news. But it is still just hard to be immersed in these political books, and i am very into politics, just not the books. For those who are, this will probably be a good read.

Excellent book

What did you love best about The Price of Politics?

Very informative. I wish I had more time for books like this. Excellent work.

A Play-by-Play Account

From Bob Woodward’s (All the President’s Men) prolific pen now comes The Price of Politics. In this volume Woodward sets out to report how the Obama administration, Democratic and Republican legislators sought to remedy the economic meltdown. Woodward provides a hour-by-hour, day-to-day, blow-by-blow account of the negotiations between the three and it is one scary tale. Readers brave enough to continue past the second chapter will learn what the debates were like, how the negotiations progressed (if negotiation is the proper term) and how the talks broke down. Sometimes I read passages that just made me want to throw my hands up in amazement. Other times, passages brought on pure disgust. I will not repeat comments made by other reviewers. Suffice it to say, that anyone interested in how the legislative process works, decision making in general, or organizational behavior will be rewarded for wading through this book. If you don’t want grinding detail, don’t open this volume. If you do stay for the entire show, you will be rewarded for turning these pages. The reading of Boyd Gaines is excelent.

Obama, the amateur president.

What did you love best about The Price of Politics?

The details on the exchanges between the White House and Congress during the budget crisis.

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

Just how little Obama and the White House knows about how to bargain with Congress.

What does Boyd Gaines bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Gaines stresses a few points that one might tend to overlook.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Too long for one sitting, but I did it in five days while on the road.