‘Double Down’ Authors Share Writing Secrets, Political Opinions

Political journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann cut their teeth covering politics during Bill Clinton’s first presidential campaign. Little did they know that the experience would set them up for a lifetime of collaboration on must-read books offering behind-the-scenes glimpses into the high-stakes drama of presidential campaigns.

In Little Rock for a Clinton School of Public Service talk, Halperin and Heilemann spoke with Talk Business and Capitol View host Roby Brock on a variety of past, present and future political subjects.

Halperin, a senior national political correspondent for Time magazine, said the two men quickly bonded on their tours of duty in the reporting field.

“One day we just started talking about the incredible characters and the incredible plot and the incredible opportunity we saw to try to tell the story in maybe a different way than daily, weekly, monthly journalism allows,” he said.

Their first novel, “Game Change,” told the backstory of the 2008 campaign trail. With the main characters of Barack Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and Sarah Palin, the book quickly rose on the bestseller list with its insights from high-level campaign sources and its deep background on the decisions made during the historic election.

Their most recent book, “Double Down,” reveals many of the campaign secrets of the 2012 re-election bid of President Obama.

“The formula was very much the same,” said Heilemann, who writes for New York magazine. “We focused on the high human drama, do a lot of long, detailed interviews with a lot of people. We tried to think of this as not being a political story, but just a story about really exceptional people in a really intense competition at the pinnacle of American life.”

While the two veteran journalists cut their teeth on Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign, they’ve been at the center of the Hillary Clinton buzz. Is she expected to run in 2016 and could that lead to another tell-all book?

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Heilemann joked.

“Not impossible,” Halperin deadpanned.

What do they think about President Obama’s current political fortunes and how do they see the high-profile U.S. Senate race between Mark Pryor and Tom Cotton shaping up through the lens of the nation’s capitol?  Watch their full interview below.