Most Popular Books by John Heilemann

Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times: "Those hungry for political news will read Double Down for the scooplets and insidery glimpses it serves up about the two campaigns, and the clues it offers about the positioning already going on among Republicans and Democrats for 2016 ... The book testifies to its authors’ energetic legwork and insider access... creating a novelistic narrative that provides a you-are-there immediacy... They succeed in taking readers interested in the backstabbing and backstage maneuvering of the 2012 campaign behind the curtains, providing a tactile... sense of what it looked like from the inside." In their runaway bestseller Game Change, Mark Halperin and John Heilemann captured the full drama of Barack Obama’s improbable, dazzling victory over the Clintons, John McCain, and Sarah Palin. With the same masterly reporting, unparalleled access, and narrative skill, Double Down picks up the story in the Oval Office, where the president is beset by crises both inherited and unforeseen—facing defiance from his political foes, disenchantment from the voters, disdain from the nation’s powerful money machers, and dysfunction within the West Wing. As 2012 looms, leaders of the Republican Party, salivating over Obama’s political fragility, see a chance to wrest back control of the White House—and the country. So how did the Republicans screw it up? How did Obama survive the onslaught of super PACs and defy the predictions of a one-term presidency? Double Down follows the gaudy carnival of GOP contenders—ambitious and flawed, famous and infamous, charismatic and cartoonish—as Mitt Romney, the straitlaced, can-do, gaffe-prone multimillionaire from Massachusetts, scraped and scratched his way to the nomination. Double Down exposes blunders, scuffles, and machinations far beyond the klieg lights of the campaign trail: Obama storming out of a White House meeting with his high command after accusing them of betrayal. Romney’s mind-set as he made his controversial “47 percent” comments. The real reasons New Jersey governor Chris Christie was never going to be Mitt’s running mate. The intervention held by the president’s staff to rescue their boss from political self-destruction. The way the tense détente between Obama and Bill Clinton morphed into political gold. And the answer to one of the campaign’s great mysteries—how did Clint Eastwood end up performing Dada dinner theater at the Republican convention? In Double Down, Mark Halperin and John Heilemann take the reader into back rooms and closed-door meetings, laying bare the secret history of the 2012 campaign for a panoramic account of an election that was as hard fought as it was lastingly consequential.

OBAMA AND THE CLINTONS; MCCAIN AND PLAIN, AND THE RACE OF A LIFETIME.

Forget everything you think you know about the making of the most powerful man on the planet. President Barack Obama''s triumph was not inevitable: it was the end product of a brilliant, calculated, convention-defying political campaign. In a race that will be talked about for years to come, he faced down his rivals with ruthless focus and efficiency. Race of a Lifetime is the gripping inside story of those thrilling months: from the meteoric rise of Obama and the collapsing House of Clinton to the erratic John McCain and the bewildering Sarah Palin. Brimming with exclusive revelations, this compulsively readable book lays bare the characters of the candidates, warts and all; exposes the inner workings of their operations; and charts the true path to the White House. It''s a tour de force: the sometimes shocking, often funny, and ultimately definitive account of the campaign of a lifetime.

"This shit would be really interesting if we weren''t in the middle of it."—Barack Obama, September 2008 In 2008, the presidential election became blockbuster entertainment. Everyone was watching as the race for the White House unfolded like something from the realm of fiction. The meteoric rise and historic triumph of Barack Obama. The shocking fall of the House of Clinton—and the improbable resurrection of Hillary as Obama''s partner and America''s face to the world. The mercurial performance of John McCain and the mesmerizing emergence of Sarah Palin. Based on hundreds of interviews with the people who lived the story, Game Change is a reportorial tour de force that reads like a fast-paced novel. Character driven and dialogue rich, replete with extravagantly detailed scenes, this is the occasionally shocking, often hilarious, ultimately definitive account of the campaign of a lifetime.

Over the past two years Mark Peterson has photographed American presidential candidates as they lead rallies, meet with voters and plead for votes. He started shortly before the government shutdown in 2013 at a Tea Party rally at the US Capitol, when politicians were railing against President Obama and the Affordable Care Act--a show to get a sound bite into the next news cycle. Since then Peterson has followed the political spin as it approaches the November 2016 election. Donald Trump''s entrance into the race--taking control of TV talking heads and making the media his press agent--is true political theatre. In a similar gesture, Bernie Sanders raised an arm in a power salute to waiting photographers after giving a speech in New Hampshire. Peterson pulls back the curtain on such performances to show these politicians as they really are. Although they are in plain sight, they hide behind words and carefully arranged imagery to project their vision of America. Peterson cuts through such staging and reveals the cold, naked ambition for power.

As one of today''s most influential political photographers, Christopher Anderson has enjoyed rare behind-the-scenes access to the inner workings of American political theater. Stump collects his color and black-and-white photographs from recent campaign trails--particularly from the 2012 Obama/Romney contest--that scrutinize the highly rehearsed rhetorical masks of, among others, Barack and Michelle Obama, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Newt Gingrich, Bill Clinton and others (including audience members at rallies). Removed from the context of reportage and sequenced here, these images accumulate a mesmerizing quality that is both frightening and hilarious. They are interspersed with other campaign-trail images, of fireworks, flags and other props of high pomp that attend such occasions. John Heilemann, author of the New York Times bestseller Game Change (on the 2008 presidential race), contributes an essay on Anderson''s work.

Hearing regarding Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, both of whom had been the subject of study over the course of 2001 with a series of hearings & meetings with Representatives concerning the accuracy of current regulatory oversight & appropriate overview of their business operations, given the relationship between their business success & the U.S. taxpayers. Witnesses: Leland C. Brendsel, Chmn. & CEO, Freddie Mac; & J. Timothy Howard, Exec. V.P. & CFO, Fannie Mae. Additional material: Freddie Mac & Fannie Mae: Their Funding Advantage & benefits to Consumers; & GSE Creep into Subprime Could Hurt MarginÓ.