• The Audacity to Win

  • The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama's Historic Victory
  • By: David Plouffe
  • Narrated by: Erik Davies
  • Length: 19 hrs and 23 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (201 ratings)

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The Audacity to Win  By  cover art

The Audacity to Win

By: David Plouffe
Narrated by: Erik Davies
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Publisher's summary

The story of the most important political campaign in modern times, by the man who went through it side by side with President Obama.
©2009 David Plouffe (P)2009 Penguin
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

What listeners say about The Audacity to Win

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Fascinating book; don't care for the narration

Plouffe's account of the history making Obama campaign is a great read. He goes in to great detail in explaining the strategy, the successes and the mistakes. I love the book itself. The narration, on the other hand, is a bit annoying. The narrator has a raspy voice that is difficult to listen to. He attempts to change his tone when speaking as Obama or as females in the narrative. This just doesn't cut it. But the content is enough to overcome the shortcomings of the reader.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

The Inside Story

I read Plouffe's book and Game Change by Heilemann and Halperin within a month of one another. And I enjoyed both fully. David Plouffe does a great job outlining the things the Obama camp did right throughout the push to the white house. Their strategy was simple and sound. Win Iowa and slug it out from there. He also talks briefly about he mis-steps, which are often more interesting and informative. Plouffe also does a good job of painting a portrait of our current president as a real person, although Game Change does provide a few extra Obama foibles that Plouffe politely leaves out. Ultimately, I found this book a great read for anyone who needs to change minds and win over constituents. The Obama campaign of 2008 has become a blueprint for future political endeavors in the areas of marketing, fundraising and touching the hearts of Americans. Well done.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

"O"de Acid ee

Geez! Do these folk realize how full of themselves they are? After twenty minutes, I couldn't take any more superlatives and rhapsodizing about their historic ego trip.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Great Insight into Strategy, but...

You really have to get over how Erik reads the characters. Having a presidential voice is one thing, raising your voice an octave for all the females is pretty over-the-top.

Great when he's just reading.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Narration doesn't serve the story well

Would you listen to The Audacity to Win again? Why?

Perhaps, if I wanted to review some historical point.

What did you like best about this story?

The inside story of the strategy used to win the 2008 election.

What didn’t you like about Erik Davies’s performance?

The narrator's use of a higher voice for the female characters bordered on ludicrous - distracting from the content of women's words with his exaggerated vocal choices. I found it bordered on sexist.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • JJ
  • 01-17-10

Informative book

This book gives us (political wonks) great insight into the strategies of their campaign.
It does at times get too technical but it doesn't take long before the the authors bring you back into their heads of winning this campaign.
Really enjoyed listening.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

My First Audible Review

Excellent audiobook. I was a college kid in 2007 when I got hooked on the Obama vision for our nation and eventually became involved with their campaign. Listening to this audiobook was relieving those moments of victory and disappointment. This book should also be a must read for someone interested in learning strategies and/or leadership skills. A lot of the strategies used by Mr. Plouffe can be applied to many fields and personal life as well.

As for Mr. Davies' narration, it was perhaps the best narration I've ever heard! I'm a little on the ADD side and the change in tone of voice helped me keep track of who was who and it created a simple audio map to follow the story.

Overall, I highly recommend this audiobook.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Buen libro sobre el día a día de una campaña

Muy buen libro. La narración cronológica aporta mucho para entender el día a día de una campaña. Recomendado

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

terrible narrator

the narrator was good awful, mispronounced names, too slow (I listened to it at 1.3x) and this review is not optional if make me write @audible.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Kudos to a formidable team

I landed on this book as a Masters class project for my Project Management class. I chose this book because I wanted to learn about what it took to get the first black man elected President in America and I wanted to learn a bit more of the intricacies it takes to run a national presidential campaign. I write this at a time when America is going into an election year in a few days. 2020 is around the corner and this election will define America domestically and indeed America's role in the world for the next century.
DEMS MUST REMOVE 45 in Nov 2020. So far none of the candidates on the debate stage have managed to grab the attention of all demographics of the electorate. If Iowa decides the President, then we shall find out in just a couple of months who takes the mantle to beat 45. Whomever it is, they will need a man like Plouffe to run their campaign because unseating 45 is the most pressing matter right now in the entire world to people who care about other people, the planet and human decency. I think Axelrod is backing Pete Buttigeg. I wonder who Plouffe is backing. Plouffe, we need you to get on Twitter.
Thank you for this book David Plouffe. Thank you for telling us how it all happened.
Conspiracy theorists would be disappointed to learn there was no Bilderberg group that met and picked Obama because he's from the British royal bloodlines who happen to be reptilian shape shifters and run the world... LMAO
They would be shocked that Soros didnt pick Obama way before Harvard and groom him and fund his campaign from Chicago to the White-house. We live in a sick twisted crazy world.Such is life I guess. But we know conspiracy theorists hardly read books, so they will never know the real truth of the Obama campaign and his once in a lifetime election to the Presidency. Boy, I miss Obama. Its hard to understand how we went from Obama to 45 and his brainwashed cult.

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