John Heilemann
About John Heilemann
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Inside The Circus 2024
Every four years, we’re told America is headed towards “the most important election of our lifetime.” But in 2024, John Heilemann argues, the cliche actually rings true. Against a backdrop of roiling economic and social anxiety, raging conflicts in the Middle East and Europe, and a domestic political landscape more bitterly polarized than at any time since the Civil War, the campaigns for the White House and control of Congress will be fevered, chaotic, and tumultuous to an unprecedented degree — and there’s no one better at making sense of it all than Heilemann. With his no-holds-barred style, gift for storytelling, 30 years of experience covering politics and business at the highest levels, and unrivaled access to the corridors power, John takes audiences behind the scenes and above the fray to give them the real story behind the headlines … and what the future holds for American democracy.
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Showtime Documentary Series 'The Circus' Hits The Presidential ...
John Heilemann, Mark McKinnon and Mark Halperin in 'The Circus.' (Credit: Showtime). The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth, a new ...
Books by John Heilemann
“Double Down: Game Change 2012” (2013)
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.
“Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime” (2010)
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. But despite the wall-to-wall media coverage of this spellbinding drama, remarkably little of the real story behind the headlines had been told—until now. In Game Change, John Heilemann and Mark Halperin pull back the curtain on the Obama, Clinton, McCain, and Palin campaigns. 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.
“Race of a Lifetime” (2010)
The runaway number one bestseller. The book that set Washington ablaze. The new non-fiction classic. Forget everything you think you know about the making of the most powerful man on the planet. Obama's triumph was not inevitable: it was the end product of a brilliant, crazy, unique political campaign. Race of a Lifetime is the gripping inside story of those thrilling months, from 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, and charts the true path to the White House. It's a tour de force: the shocking, funny, and definitive account of the campaign of a lifetime.
“Pride Before the Fall: The Trials of Bill Gates and the End of the Microsoft Era” (2001)
Reveals how a group of business rivals persuaded the U.S. government to indict Microsoft for monopolistic practices, chronicles the ensuing trial, and discusses the damage it has inflicted on the first business empire of the Information Age.
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