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In spite of the cover, this is not an Obama book, but instead a good (but not great) overview of the election. ( )

Unoriginal Insights But Still a Good Recap

I agree with most reviewers that this is mostly a rehash of the Obama, McCain, and Clinton campaigns of 2007-2008. But I think that if one should read any such account this is the one, Evan Thomas and the Newsweek team had as close a contact to the major players than any other. And yes, one can find all the original articles still online, but who wants to go through all that trouble of finding, downloading, and printing.

That is not to say that the book is completely devoid of good insight. I especially enjoyed the sections on the disorganization of the Hillary campaign early on. I don't think the average viewer could appreciate just how chaotic "Hillaryland" really was during the first few months of 2008. One has to wonder, had the real Hillary shown up early on, Obama probably would've been mincemeat by Super Tuesday. The lesson here is, never underestimate any opponent.

Another under-covered event was the hacking of both the Obama and McCain campaign computers during August that didn't get reported until after the voting. Thomas isn't really clear what the full fallout of that was, but it appeared that thousands of documents were copied.

Finally, I don't think the average viewer could really appreciate the genuine disdain that McCain had against the Junior Senator from Illinois. Obama had irked McCain on more than one occasion in his short time in the Senate, reneging on his early attempts to cross party lines on ethics reform and immigration. McCain is an old-school "my word is solid as oak" kind of guy, and Obama rubbed him the wrong way, a fickle-minded rookie.

Most of Thomas's analysis is spot on, but I think his commentary on the Race Speech in Philadelphia is over-simplified. The truly remarkable aspect of that speech was that Obama was not only able to win over whites as Thomas argues, but that he explained the complexity of "America's Dilemma" in such a way that both sides could view each other from a new light. He provided blacks a glimpse into the realities of living white, and vice versa. At that moment, Obama became a free-floating signifier in which the nation's hopes for a post-racial society could be projected onto. Whether that actually happens is beyond the point, but that Obama was a first and necessary step towards reconciliation.

Overall, this is a great book and a great look back at what certainly will be one of the most significant electoral campaigns in U.S. history. Thomas does a great job setting the scene, exploring the various personalities, and bringing it all together in a solid tight narrative. ( )