Game Change Gossipy But Insightful

From Bill Clinton’s rumored affair to Harry Reid’s “negro voice” quote, John Heilemann and Mark Halperin’s Game Change is already making headlines. The book delivers a “spicy smorgasbord of observations, revelations, and allegations,” writes Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times. Some parts of it reveal “impressive legwork and access,” while others are essentially gossip or spin from particularly cooperative sources, many of whom are unnamed.

Still, it leaves you “with a vivid, visceral sense of the campaign,” and the personalities who shaped it. And here’s what you really clicked through for: more tidbits!

• Cindy and John McCain fought openly in front of others; strategist John Weaver suspected that Cindy had a “long-term boyfriend” in Arizona.
• When Hillary Clinton initially turned down the secretary of State job, she said to Obama, “You know my husband. We’re going to be explaining something he said every other day. You know I can’t control him.”
• McCain lieutenants discussed the “threatening possibility that Palin was mentally unstable,” and agreed to make her a ceremonial vice president if they won.
• John Edwards staffers saw Elizabeth as “an abusive, intrusive, paranoid, condescending crazywoman.”

(More Mark Halperin stories.)