Double Down

Game Change 2012

By: Mark Halperin, John Heilemann

Narrated by: Robert Fass

Length: 19 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

In their runaway best seller Game Change, Mark Halperin and John Heilemann captured the full drama of Barack Obama’s improbable, dazzling victory over the Clintons, John McCain, and Sarah Palin. With the same masterly reporting, unparalleled access, and narrative skill, Double Down picks up the story in the Oval Office, where the president is beset by crises both inherited and unforeseen - facing defiance from his political foes, disenchantment from the voters, disdain from the nation’s powerful money machers, and dysfunction within the West Wing.

As 2012 looms, leaders of the Republican Party, salivating over Obama’s political fragility, see a chance to wrest back control of the White House - and the country. So how did the Republicans screw it up? How did Obama survive the onslaught of super PACs and defy the predictions of a one-term presidency?

Double Down follows the gaudy carnival of GOP contenders - ambitious and flawed, famous and infamous, charismatic and cartoonish - as Mitt Romney, the straitlaced, can-do, gaffe-prone multimillionaire from Massachusetts, scraped and scratched his way to the nomination.

Double Down exposes blunders, scuffles, and machinations far beyond the klieg lights of the campaign trail: Obama storming out of a White House meeting with his high command after accusing them of betrayal. Romney’s mind-set as he made his controversial “47 percent” comments. The real reasons New Jersey governor Chris Christie was never going to be Mitt’s running mate. The intervention held by the president’s staff to rescue their boss from political self-destruction. The way the tense détente between Obama and Bill Clinton morphed into political gold. And the answer to one of the campaign’s great mysteries - how did Clint Eastwood end up performing Dada dinner theater at the Republican convention?

In Double Down, Mark Halperin and John Heilemann take the listener into back rooms and closed-door meetings, laying bare the secret history of the 2012 campaign for a panoramic account of an election that was as hard fought as it was lastingly consequential.

©2013 Mark Halperin and John Heilemann (P)2013 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Those hungry for political news will read Double Down for the scooplets and insidery glimpses it serves up about the two campaigns, and the clues it offers about the positioning already going on among Republicans and Democrats for 2016...The book testifies to its authors’ energetic legwork and insider access...[C]reating a novelistic narrative that provides a you-are-there immediacy...They succeed in taking readers interested in the backstabbing and backstage maneuvering of the 2012 campaign behind the curtains, providing a tactile...[S]ense of what it looked like from the inside. (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times)

"Chock-full of anecdotes, secret meetings, indiscreet remarks.... No one can compete [with Halperin and Heilemann]. That’s what it means to own the franchise. It’s a small club: these two guys and Bob Woodward. And with this book, they’ve earned their admission." (Michael Kinsley, The New York Times Book Review)

"Sharp insights buttressed by startling indiscretions fill Double Down, a new account of Barack Obama’s win over his 2012 Republican rival, Mitt Romney. This gripping book - a sequel to Game Change, a best seller about Mr. Obama’s 2008 path to the White House - cements the status of the authors as unrivalled chroniclers of campaign politics." (The Economist)

Good Companion to Game Change

I really enjoyed Mark Halperin and John Heileman's Game Change so I decided to use a credit on Double Down. It was a credit well spent.

Let me say that once again Halperin and Heilemann takes the listener deep inside the real mechanics of political campaigns at the highest level.

Carefully researched without being at all dry, Double Down's insider's view reveals the miss-steps, slip-ups, and dumb luck that can doom or lift a presidential race.

Presidential campaigns are a lot like making sausage. Don't listen if you don't want to know what really goes on.

Obama's landslide in 2012 should have been a given

Where does Double Down rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Although the Presidential race in 2012 seemed a tad boring, this book provides many revelations on how Obama's campaign team ran like a luxury vehicle and the Romney team was a lemon. Events went the right way for the Obama team, the only break for Romney was the Denver debate.

What did you like best about this story?

Any Democrat will love this book, while Republicans will hate it. Mitt Romney let the far right define his candidacy and it painted him into a corner. After the implosion of the Jon Huntsman and Tim Pawlenty short-lived runs, Romney faces a bunch of clowns that brought him crashing to earth. Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain, Michelle Bachman, and Rick Perry come from a casting couch envisioned by the writers of Comedy Central's the Daily Show and Stephen Colbert.

Have you listened to any of Robert Fass’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Robert Fass reads dramatically and the listener gets caught up in the sense of history being made. Even though everyone knows the ending of the story, the narration provides many thrilling details to keep the listener spellbound.

What’s the most interesting tidbit you’ve picked up from this book?

Although the Romneys and the Huntsmans are related distantly and come from the same Mormon Utah background, the two families share plenty of bad blood. Also, that Rick Perry considers himself a serious politician and not as a comedic villain.

Any additional comments?

I can't wait for the movie version, even though Sarah Palin only plays a minor role in the 2012 campaign. The real story of the 47 percent tape was revealed on MSNBC, but it helped define Mitt "Moneybags" Romney.

Great for political junkies.

I read Game Change and lived that book too. Their writing style really allowed me to feel like I was a fly on the wall observing.

Another win

This another incredible insight into the 2012 elections...I'm already excited about their 2016 book.
Their insights and in-depth behind the scenes reporting pulls back the curtain on the state of present day elections.
If you want to know, this is the book to read. My biggest complaint may be I wish it was longer.

Great for political junkies

A fascinating inside look at the personal dynamics involved in the 2012 election. I recommend listening to Game Change by the same authors, which is about the 2008 election, first.

Double Down is a Home Run

I'm a politics junkie (or at least I used to be, before the 2016 presidential cycle forced me to stop following it cold turkey). The presidential race is the Super Bowl of politics. Unfolding as it does over the course of several years, it is a long drawn-out process, sometimes painfully so. But not this book! This is like the NFL Films version, reliving all the best moments of the race, replete with the sideline chatter that you don't hear in the heat of the race.

That this was the kookiest presidential race in my lifetime (until the next one), and certainly one of the most partisan (until the next one), made the process of reliving it through Double Down that much more interesting and fun. Especially Part 2, which reconstructs the Republican primary race. Double Down details how most of the serious hopefuls chose to sit this one out and how most of the fringe candidates jumped in feet first.

With all of the ex-post explanations of how and why certain episodes went down, what can you say, this is candy for politics junkies. Unfortunately, much of it has been rendered moot by 2016 and beyond. What seemed weird and extreme in 2012 now seems quaint and tame. But along with its precursor, Game Change, the same exercise about the 2008 election, it still serves as a good (and chilling) illustration of the stepping stones that brought us to where we are now.

The most interesting character here is Mitt Romney -- after years of Obama as president, his presence in Double Down is not as much of a revelation as Romney. It's truly fascinating to relive his evolution from incorrigible flip-flopper to a guy who doubles down on even the most ludicrous of positions just to avoid being labeled a flip-flopper -- the series of self-inflicted wounds he brought down on himself is mind-boggling (as evidenced by Obama scratching his head at every turn wondering what the heck his opponent thinks he's doing).

Halperin and Heilemann continued on to their third presidential race in 2016, but they did it on TV (Showtime's The Circus) rather than in print. I had been hoping for a book version, but in the aftermath of that election, I probably would not have read it. They're still at it on Showtime, but I've tuned out.

If you like political gossip this is your book

Would you listen to Double Down again? Why?

The insider's view of the 2012 presidential campaign. If you want mud to sling, if you are looking for juicy details and facts about the major players this is your book. This book will tell you of the main actors, the strategies and tactics both campaigns employed and the obstacles that had to be overcome. Looking for why Chris Christie was not chosen as VP here you'll find the reasons. Want to know why Romney did or did not do something you'll find the answer here. If you're interested in politics you will want to read this book.

Meh

This double down was definitely not a game changer. Sorry, I couldn't resist. Especially since that's the kind of writing you can expect in this book.

Obama is luckier than a dog with two "D's"

Great book, interesting information on the Obama vs Romney campaigns... Very insightful. I would recommend it to anyone who want a over picture with details on the reasons why Obama won and why Romney grafted.

Same Change

It's just another tail of the elephants in the room losing the race. Whenever again