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. But despite the wall-to-wall media coverage of this spellbinding drama, remarkably little of the real story behind the headlines has yet been told.

In Game Change, John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, two of the country’s leading political reporters, use their unrivaled access to pull back the curtain on the Obama, Clinton, McCain, and Palin campaigns.

• How did Obama convince himself that, despite the thinness of his résumé, he could somehow beat the odds to become the nation’s first African American president?
• How did the tumultuous relationship between the Clintons shape—and warp—Hillary’s supposedly unstoppable bid?
• What was behind her husband’s furious outbursts and devastating political miscalculations?
• Why did McCain make the novice governor of Alaska his running mate?
• Was Palin merely painfully out of her depth—or troubled in more serious ways?

Game Change answers those questions and more, laying bare the secret history of the 2008 campaign. Game Change take’s us inside the Obama machine, where staffers referred to him as “Black Jesus.”

Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime

They unearth the quiet conspiracy in the U.S. Senate to prod Obama into the race. They expose the twisted tale of John Edwards’s affair with Rielle Hunter, the truth behind the downfall of Rudy Giuliani, and the doubts of those responsible for vetting Palin about her readiness for the Republican ticket. And they reveal how, in an emotional late-night phone call, Obama succeeded in wooing Clinton, despite her staunch resistance, to become his secretary of state.

The war room within a war room dismissed or discredited much of the gossip floating around, but not all of it. The stories about one woman were more concrete, and after some discreet fact-finding, the group concluded that they were true: that BIll was indeed having an affair — and not a frivolous one-night stand but a sustained romantic relationship. …. For months, thereafter, the war room within a war room braced for the explosion, which her aides knew could come at any moment.

“This shit would be really interesting if we weren’t in the middle of it.”
—Barack Obama, September 2008

He was wowed by Obama’s oratorical gifts and believed that the country was ready to embrace a black presidential candidate, especially one such as Obama — a “light-skinned” African American “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one,” as he said privately.

Reids is basically saying that Obama is amazing because “He speaks so well and doesn’t look that black.”

Reid has since apologized after the story gained the attention of the main stream media. “I regret using such a poor choice of words. I sincerely apologize for offending any and all Americans, especially African-Americans for my improper comments.”

The democrats have been quick to play down his remarks but for Reid, trailing in polls, this loss of credibility could not have come at a worse time. President Obama relies heavily on him to try to pass the massive health care overhaul bill.