Still, if you’re a political junkie - as this reader is - their book, while a guilty pleasure, also is compulsively readable. Is there really any living American beyond the age of reason who doesn’t know that there’s a disparity between the lives our political leaders actually live and the ones they attempt to project in public? Is there any serious student of politics who doesn’t know that most national political campaigns are snake pits filled with dysfunction and back-biting? If they weren’t, who would be around to tell reporters like Heilemann and Halperin all these juicy inside stories? A year into Barack Obama’s presidency, a great deal of this sensational material, while in all likelihood true, seems prurient. But the question that begs to be answered is: To what end is all this effort and ability expended? Had we known many of the things Heilemann and Halperin disclose before the last general election, people would have had a chance to weigh the implications and vote accordingly. That’s not to say it isn’t deeply and knowledgeably reported and presented with all the cool sophistication one would expect from two accomplished political reporters. This is a volume that might best be characterized as poli-porn.
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