"Game Change," a new book about the 2008 presidential election from New York Magazine's John Heilemann and Time magazine's Mark Halperin, was featured on Good Morning America Monday. George Stephanopoulos interviewed Heilemann and Halperin about the book and its profiles of candidates and their spouses.
Stephanopoulos asked about their description of Elizabeth Edwards, whose public image, they say, was very different from the the one shared by Edwards campaign insiders. From the book:
"What the world saw in Elizabeth: A valiant, determined, heroic every-woman. What the Edwards insiders saw: An abusive, intrusive, paranoid, condescending crazy-woman.
Heilemann and Halperin stood behind the claims in their book and rejected a denial by Liz Cheney that her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, thought that McCain's selection of Palin as a running mate was a mistake.
"Game Change" made waves last week when Sen. Harry Reid's remarks about President Obama's race were reported. The senate majority leader reportedly spent Saturday apologizing for his comments:
"He (Reid) 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 later put it privately,"
Other details in the book:
_ Presidential rival Hillary Rodham Clinton said she believed Obama's team had used out-of-state supporters to win the Iowa caucuses and had intentionally exploited Obama's race. She said the country faced a "a terrible choice" between Obama and Republican nominee John McCain.
_ Obama and running mate Joe Biden barely spoke, kept separate schedules and seldom campaigned together. The campaign kept Biden off the nightly calls that included Obama, instead having the campaign manager and senior strategist brief Biden separately.
_ Aides to McCain described the difficulties they faced with their vice presidential pick, then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Steve Schmidt, a senior adviser to McCain, is quoted telling Palin's foreign policy tutors: "You guys have a lot of work to do. She doesn't know anything."
_ Former President Bill Clinton's efforts to persuade Sen. Edward M. Kennedy to endorse his wife's presidential bid fell flat when Clinton told the Democratic lawmaker that just a few years ago, Obama would have been serving the pair coffee.
WATCH THE GMA INTERVIEW: