by Glenn Thrush
First published 2014
President Barack Obama sits in his campaign headquarters, watching poll numbers fluctuate in the final weeks before Election Day 2012. Across the country in Boston, Mitt Romney's team projects confidence about their path to victory. Both campaigns believe they will win, but only one can be right. Obama's advisers make a critical decision in late May that shifts the entire race. Romney's "47 percent" video surfaces, creating chaos within his campaign. Three presidential debates loom ahead, each carrying the potential to reshape the contest. Campaign strategists wrestle with advertising decisions that will define the fall campaign's boundaries. The candidates prepare intensively for their televised confrontations while their teams execute thousands of small tactical choices. On election night, both camps gather anxiously in hotel suites, waiting for voters to deliver their verdict. The tension peaks as Romney finally places his concession call to Obama. This minute-by-minute account reveals the strategic calculations, internal debates, and pivotal moments that determined who would occupy the White House for the next four years.
Genres: american, political-science, biography-memoir, 21st-century, current-affairs, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, insider-perspective
Setting: Boston, Campaign Headquarters
Period: 2012
ebook · Random House