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Collision 2012: Obama Vs. Romney And The Future Of Elections In America (2013)

by Dan Balz(Favorite Author)

3.73 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0670025941 (ISBN13: 9780670025947)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Viking Adult

review 1: Good history, bad writer Washington Post reporter Dan Balz wrote this sequel to his 2008 book on the election. I didn't like his style for the first book (which was co-written with another author who died before this book) and I was sad to see that it was the same here. If you're at all familiar with the 2012 election then much of what Balz writes is probably not unknown. That said, Balz does a good job in establishing what the story looks like from the outside: how events from the prolonged Republican nomination to various "gaffes" to the debates to the election look from the outside and in context of the election. I don't think there's anything earth-shattering, but it's good to have the sequence of events as well as a good sense of the structure of the campaigns (for e... morexample, how did pollsters and other consultants decide to shape the narrative? What was their methodology? Some of that's here). At the same time, much of the book was quite tedious to read. Initially I enjoyed the beginning, but I can only assume my interest in the subject carried me through. Something about Balz's writing really turns me off. I don't read his work in the Post religiously, but I feel that with many journalists, they are great in writing shorter news articles or maybe long-form pieces. But that knowledge doesn't translate into novel-length works. Balz is a well-respected journalist, but this was a slog to get through. It's nowhere near as engaging as either one of the 'Game Change' books but it's less gossip and more about the inner workings of the campaign. Maybe it's just the nature of the fact that a lot of it IS grunt work, it is NOT glamorous and can be quite tedious. But I felt that in the hands of a more compelling writer this could have been an amazing book. Sadly not so much. A good reference to keep on hand for those interested in elections, but don't make it the only one. And keep in mind Balz isn't exactly that exciting of an author.
review 2: This is a good, if not spectacular recounting of the 2012 presidential election. Relative to Jonathan Alter's "The Center Holds", this account is more even-handed, and provides more new details of the goings on behind the scenes of the campaigns. These details extend to better after-election assessments by those involved. I am not sure just how it stacks up to "Double Down", as I have not yet read that book, but I would certainly recommend this over "The Center Holds" if you want a better holistic account of 2012. less

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