Game Change Audiobook by Mark Halperin, John Heilemann

in doing so we have tried to address the multitude of vital questions that daily journalism and hourly blog aying obsessed over briefly and then passed by or never grappled with in the first place how did Obama a freshman Senator with few tangible political accomplishments convince himself that he should be and could be America's first African-American president what role did Bill Clinton actually play in his wife's campaign why did McCain picked the unknown and untested governor of Alaska as his running mate and who is Sarah Palin really although no work of this kind lacking the distance and perspective of time can hope to be definitive we are convinced that some answers are more readily discovered in the ground that lies between history and journalism precisely the spot that we are aiming for and will leave this Audi book occupies prologue Barack Obama jerked bolt upright in bed at 3:00 in the morning Darkness enveloped his low rent room at the de moin Hampton Inn the airport across the street was quiet in the hours before Dawn it was very late December 2007 a few days ahead of the Iowa caucuses Obama had been sprinting flat out for president for nearly a year through all the nights he'd endured in cookie cutter hotels during the months of uncertainty and angst months of lagging by a mile from the national polls his improbable bid for the White House written off by the Washington Smart Set his self-confidence shaken by his uneven performance and the formidability of his arch rival Hillary Clinton Obama always slept soundly like the dead but now he found himself Wide Awake heart pounding consumed by a thought at once electric and daunting I might win this thing the past months in Iowa had been a blur of high school GS union halls and snow dusted corn fields Obama was surging he could sense it the crowd swelling the enthusiasm mounting his organization clicking his stump speech catching Sparks his strategy from day one had been crystalline win Iowa and watch The Dominoes fall if he carried the caucuses New Hampshire and South Carolina would be his and so on and so on but as Obama sat there in the pre-dawn Stillness the implications of the events that he saw unfolding hit him as never before he didn't feel ecstatic he didn't feel relieved he felt like the dog that caught the bus what was he supposed to do now by the morning of the caucuses Obama was laboring to project his customary Aura of calm never too high never too low was how he and everyone else described his temperament his opponents were still out there running around squeezing in a few last appearances before the voting started but Obama had decided to chill he woke up late played some basketball went for a haircut with Marty Nesbit a pal of his from Chicago lazing around the hotel afterward he and Nesbit shot the breeze about sports their kids and then more Sports anything that is to avoid talking about the election the one topic that Obama seemed intent on banishing from his head the phone rang Obama picked it up Chris edley was on the line the two men had known each other for almost 20 years years since Obama was a student at Harford law school and edley one of his professors now the dean of Bolt Hall at Berkeley edley was one of the few Outsiders in whom Obama had confided all year long with whom he shared his frustrations and anxieties about his campaign which were greater than almost anyone knew but today it was the teacher who was stressing while the pupil played Mr cool I haven't been able to eat in 36 hours I'm so nervous edley said how are you doing I'm Serene Obama said I just got back from playing basketball you've got to be kidding nope Obama said we had a strategy we stuck to it we executed it reasonably well now it's in the hands of the voters Obama's advisers took comfort in his Serenity but share it they did not the Obama Brain Trust David Axel the hangdog chief strategist and self-styled Keeper of the message David Pluff the tightly wound campaign manager Robert Gibbs the sturdy sharp elbowed alabaman communications director Steve hilderbrand the renowned field operative behind the campaign's Grassroots effort in Iowa was a worry wsh crew by nature but their nerves were especially jangly now and with good reason the obam had bet everything on Iowa if their man lost he was probably toast and certainly so if he placed behind Clinton by his campaign's own rigorous projections and Obama of