Heilemann and Halperin relate stories about Bill Clinton's philandering and how Hillary Clinton's staff prepared to defuse those stories as well as marital problems between John and Elizabeth Edwards. Ambinder ends his post with this dig at the profession.
Political scientists aren't going to like this book, because it portrays politics as it is actually lived by the candidates, their staff and the press, which is to say -- a messy, sweaty, ugly, arduous competition between flawed human beings -- a universe away from numbers and probabilities and theories.I don't know about that. Most political scientists are people too. We probably like unsubstantiated gossip as much as the next person and would enjoy the book after we finish with this week's National Enquirer.
Honestly, I have no idea about the book and probably will never read it. I focus more on international politics. However, I'm not really convinced that the events Ambinder highlights had any bearing upon the final outcome of the 2008 election. That would be why "political scientists aren't going to like this book."
