You know that book that Newsweek always publishes after the Presidential Election...

[VolcanoJen]

... the one that goes into great detail about the primaries and fall campaign, and dishes all the dirt, once the results are finally in? Everyone goes on the record and tells the real story, and it's always fascinating. The 2004 book was especially good, and I've reread it at least three times.

Newsweek: Election 2004

Damn, I cannot WAIT for Newsweek 2008 Presidential Race to come out. I kind of wish it would come out today!

Some of the backstories I'm dying to read:

- What was really said in that conversation between Ted Kennedy and Bill Clinton, where Ted told Bill in no uncertain terms he was endorsing Obama?

- What was it like in the Clinton War Room between South Carolina and Super Tuesday, and especially after Super Tuesday, when it became clear that she did not emerge as the nominee?

- What were the real circumstances that led to the firing of Patti Solis-Doyle? What was the mood like in Arlington? How did Mark Penn keep his job? What did he say?

- What was said between Bill and Hillary when she found out about Bill's "Jesse Jackson" comments in South Carolina?

- What was the mood like in Obama's South Carolina War Room when the exit polls were first released and it became clear they were on their way to a rout beyond anyone's wildest expectations? South Carolina was the catalyst that changed the race... what was that moment like?

- Why did John Edwards leave the race? Did anyone (Elizabeth? Joe Trippi?) encourage him to hang tight?

- When did Bill Richardson call Hillary Clinton? Before or after his endorsement hit the news? How did that little talk go?

- When did the Obama Camp learn that the Rev. Wright story had gone viral? What went into Obama's now-famous "The Speech"?

Feel free to add your own "burning questions" below! What are you guys, the purest political junkies, just dying to know?

[Cha]

1. What was the little talk that made hilary see she

had to stop calling Sinbad just a comedian and own up to her being a tragic :+

[VolcanoJen]

6. Wow... I left out TuzlaGate!

What is wrong with me!??!?

[Cha]

8. OMG! Picture Priceless..

Picture telling a 1000 words!

[VolcanoJen]

11. It's my favorite so far.

There are, like, hundreds of Tuzla photoshops out there. ;-)

[anonymous171]

2. I wanna know how angry Hillary got at Bill after she found out about all his gaffes.

[VolcanoJen]

3. To me, that's the most burning question of them all.

Surely, he had to have called her to tell her that Ted Kennedy was out, for example. And then, the South Carolina meltdown. And then, zap! He was off the campaign trail.

Gossipy, for sure, but it's a political junkie thing! :-)

[FrenchieCat]

4. How did the press really feel as they were pastorbating wildly for 2 weeks....

before calming the fuck down? Did they feel the same way they felt 5 years after the Iraq war; as though they had nothing to do with it?

[VolcanoJen]

5. Oh, the media backstory will be fascinating

And, since the book is written by media asshats, I'm sure there will be plenty of navel-gazing. :-)

[JayFredMuggs]

10. Try to keep up

This is NOT your turn to insult the media again and again.

It's about the inside story behind why Hillary made a mess of the Presidential Campaign that, one year ago, was hers to win.

[VolcanoJen]

14. Ha!!!

It's your call, Muggsie!! :-)

[JayFredMuggs]

20. Where did you get that picture of me?

I hadn't combed my hair that day!


But it's nice of you to remember me in my pre-evolution days, before I became a political pundit, (as good as that MSNBC guy Tucker, I must say)

[JeffR]

7. I wish Hunter S. Thompson hadn't finally had enough of this world.

"Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, 2008" would be a must-read for generations...

[Cha]

9. Really..What the heck would Hunter S

Thompson think of all this?

[Ysabel]

15. i was just wondering last night what his take on all this might be (n/t)...

[Forkboy]

16. Yeah, but he went out like his hero Hemingway.

So it was fitting.

But damn, that WOULD be a hell of a book. :)

[VolcanoJen]

18. He's no Hunter S, but Matt Taibbi has been writing some great stuff for RS this cycle.

The other day, I read a priceless quote of his:

"Trying to wrestle power from the Clintons is like trying to wrestle meat from a hammerhead shark."

:rofl:

Can't seem to find any of his more recent stuff online, unfortunately.

[JeffR]

19. Can't help but think Dr. Thompson would have found that funny

and true.

[VolcanoJen]

23. Found the newest Taibbi piece online

It's fantastic. Good idea for all to take a DU break and enjoy his writing. :-)

Generation Squeeb - Barack Obama’s Reverend Wright controversy, and America’s squid-heart

Excerpt (and Matt lived in Russia for years playing semi-professional basketball, so he knows a thing or two about their culture, which ours is slowly morphing into):

That's just the way we are, and maybe it's time to wonder why that is. In Russia they have a word, sovok, which described the craven, chickenshit mindset that over the course of decades became hard-wired into the increasingly silly brains of Soviet subjects. It's a hard word to define, but once you get it — and all Russians get it — it's like riding a bicycle, you've got it. Sovok is the word that described a society where for decades silence and a thoughtful demeanor might be construed as evidence of a dangerous dissidence lurking underneath; the sovok therefore protected himself from suspicion by babbling meaningless nonsense at all times, so that no one would accuse him of harboring smart ideas. A sovok talked tough, and cheered Khruschev for banging a shoe at America, but at the same time a sovok would have sold his own children for a pair of American jeans. The sovok talked like a romantic and lavished women with compliments, but preferred long fishing trips and nights spend in the garage tinkering with his shitty car to actual sex. It's hard to explain, but over there, they know what the word means. More than anything, sovok described a society that spent seventy years in mortal terror of new ideas, and tended to drape itself in a paper-thin patriotism whenever it felt threatened, and worshipped mediocrities as a matter of course, elevating to positions of responsibility only those who showed an utter absence not only of objectionable qualities, but any qualities at all.

We're getting to be the same kind of people. We can't focus for more than ten seconds on anything at all and we're constantly exercised about stupid media-generated non-scandals, guilt-by-association raps, accidental dumb utterances of various campaign aides and other nonsense — while at the same time we have no energy at all left to wonder about the mass burgling of the national budget for phony military contracts, the war, the billion dollars or so in campaign contributions to be spent this year that will be buying a small mountain of favors for the next four years. And we... shit, I don't even know what I'm saying anymore. I'm just tired of this tone that's always out there when these scandals break, like we can't fucking stand the existence of this Wright fellow for even a minute longer, not a minute longer! — when we all know that come Monday, or Tuesday at the latest, Jeremiah Wright will be forgotten and we'll be jumping en masse in a panic away from the next media-offered shadow to fall across our bow. What a bunch of turds we all are, seriously. God help us if we ever had to deal with a real problem.

[Tatiana]

12. What was Obama's reaction to Hillary's "Meet me in OHIO!!!11" attempted public shaming? n/t

[Johnny__Motown]

13. Who told her she needed to write a check for $5 million to keep her campaign going?

[futureliveshere]

17. How did Obama feel/react when he found out that actualy the Clinton camp had contacted Canada first.

regarding NAFTA and that he and the Ohioans had been duped.

[anonymous171]

21. Interesting. I wonder how much of a temper Obama really has?

I hear he's actually really competitive...

[VolcanoJen]

22. I do have a feeling that when "Election 2008: How Obama Won" comes out...

... there's going to be a huge chapter that sounds a lot like this great Rolling Stone article:

The Machinery of Hope - Inside the grass-roots field operation of Barack Obama, who is transforming the way political campaigns are run

It's fascinating. It's revolutionary. It's why Obama caught all of his opponents off-guard, and I don't see how in the hell John McCain even approaches something like this. This election is like no other, and I really don't think the GOP is as ready for it as they think they are.

Money Quote from Joe Trippi:

"We're seeing the last time a top-down campaign has a chance to win it," says Trippi. "There won't be another campaign that makes the same mistake the Clintons made of being dependent on big donors and insiders. It's not going to work ever again."