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)

No news here

Their first book gave new info and insight on the campaign and presented it as a compelling read. This one feels like warmed over old news and is written that way. Keep looking something to keep me interested. Sorry to say I drifted away and learned nothing.

Good up until Trump's name was mentioned

I was trying to get away from hearing Trump's name mentioned in politics for the umpteenth time. So I
purchased a book before he got elected and lo and behold Trump is in this book also. Too much if you
ask me. I had to skip over the chapters with his name. This is a good book but not as good as
Game Change. Still a worthwhile read.

Great insider report of the 2012 election ..

If you're a politico you'll enjoy this book! Authors cover the entire scene and spread of candidates in a hard-fought election year. The story is detailed and drags in a couple of places but overall is well done.

Fascinating

This is an excellent view in to the world of elections. Game change was very good but I actually thought this was better. If you like politics, you will LOVE this book!

Waste of time, missed the main story

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Covering the use of new media by the Obama team, totally absent from the book.

What was most disappointing about Mark Halperin and John Heilemann ’s story?

Third-rate recap of Woodward-like insider stories, with no citations, that completely failed to address the highly successful use of new media by the Obama team. Not surprising, in retrospect, that an old-school media worker would either miss or choose not to cover this aspect of the campaign. The highly successful use of new media puts in question whether the millions spent on conventional advertising media -- money that indirectly pays the author's salary -- is a poor investment. This book has the potential, in future j-school courses, to be an example of why old media lost market share and died.

What about Robert Fass’s performance did you like?

OK

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Double Down?

It's not what needed cutting -- although the constant use of dialogue that the authors must have heard about second- or third-hand is the antithesis of real reporting could have been reduced -- it's what wasn't covered at all. No new media techniques at all.

Any additional comments?

Waste of money, quite disappointing. Find him on CSPAN, watch that, and save both money and time.

Soulless Beltway Claptrap

Mark Halperin's name may be mud now, but he deserved it a long time ago

Double Dissappointment

What would have made Double Down better?

I would like to have seen more inside information such as, Eric Fehrnstrom's role. What was going on in that campaign?

Would you ever listen to anything by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann again?

Yes!

How could the performance have been better?

I would have liked one of the authors do the narration.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment

Any additional comments?

No matter how much people try to humanize Mitt Romney it just does not work. It strikes me that in the book, and in a recent documentary Mitt Romney never, not once, addresses the plight of people who are, by no fault of their own economically suffering. He is just so indifferent.

Nothing like the first book!

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

A POTUS fan club for sure. The first book (Game Change) was a fair and objective look at all the candidates in the race, with no bias towards any candidate. It was an outstanding look into the actual race from an uninterested viewers perspective. It took a lot of criticism for this approach, but that made it the great read it was. This one is a cheerleading book for the President and the "tough" road he had to endure his first term. That is fine, but not what I was looking for based on the earlier book. I did not need a rehash of the "accomplishments" and lack of credit the President received leading up to the election. I wanted another unbiased view of the election. It doesn't exist in this book.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Nothing from these authors for sure. They either caved into peer pressure or were paid to make a POTUS fanboy book.

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

The narrator did an outstanding job considering the material he had to deliver. Would definitely listen to another of his efforts.

What character would you cut from Double Down?

the authors

Any additional comments?

I made it almost 30 minutes into the book before I had enough. I am truly saddened that the authors changed their motive from an objective and rational history of the events to a pathetic cheerleading book for one of the participants. Don't read this based on the impressions of the first book, you will be sadly disappointed.

Audible is the issue not the book....

Any additional comments?

Audible.com download did not work and attempted to download into my Dropbox instead of iTunes.