Campaign 2012 Tidbits (14 of 16): Obama on Christie.

From Mark Halperin and John Heilemann’s Double Down – Game Change 2012 (New York: Penguin Press, 2013), p. 199:

When his aides wanted to know what he made of [New Jersey governor Chris] Christie [after a joint tour to survey damage from Hurricane Irene], Obama grinned and said, “He’s a *big* man.”

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Campaign 2012 Tidbits (13 of 16): Romney tactic vs. Rick Perry.

From Mark Halperin and John Heilemann’s Double Down – Game Change 2012 (New York: Penguin Press, 2013), p. 186:

When [GOP primary contender Rick] Perry[, who had supported legislation to provide in-state college tuition for children of undocumented workers,]  next visited New Hampshire, [Romney national staffer Matt] Rhoades and one of the campaign’s Granite State operatives arranged to have him greeted by protestors, including one who was wearing a sombrero and holding a placard that read THANKS FOR THE IN-STATE TUITION.

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Campaign 2012 Tidbits (12 of 16): Undelivered joke of Michelle Bachmann

From Mark Halperin and John Heilemann’s Double Down – Game Change 2012 (New York: Penguin Press, 2013), p. 171:

The manly Lone Star Stater [and now GOP primary contender Rick Perry] had been a “yell leader” in college at Texas A&M; [GOP primary contender Michelle] Bachmann had waved the pom-poms in high school.  So [Bachmann adviser Ed] Rollins crafted a playful but edgy greeting for his candidate to deliver [though she never did]: “From one former cheerleader to another, welcome to Iowa!”

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Campaign 2012 Tidbits (11 of 16): Gossip on Romney from Condoleezza Rice.

From Mark Halperin and John Heilemann’s Double Down – Game Change 2012 (New York: Penguin Press, 2013), p. 132:

Former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice once told [Indiana governor Mitch] Daniels that when Mitt visited Stanford, where she had returned after her time in government, she watched astonished as he emitted a canned stump speech to a sophisticated, techie crowd – then repeated the same faux pas at a small private dinner she hosted for him afterwards.

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Campaign 2012 Tidbits (10 of 16): Donald Trump on Bain Capital.

From Mark Halperin and John Heilemann’s Double Down – Game Change 2012 (New York: Penguin Press, 2013), p. 128:

Trump was publicly sniffy about Romney as a capitalist, denigrating him as a “small-business guy,” and privately disdainful of Bain.  “They’d buy a company and fire everyone,” he told his associates.

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Campaign 2012 Tidbits (9 of 16): VP switch exploration.

From Mark Halperin and John Heilemann’s Double Down – Game Change 2012 (New York: Penguin Press, 2013), p. 78:

[Before the 2012 campaign majorly kicked off] the top echelon of Obamaworld had in fact been discussing the wisdom of replacing Biden with Hillary; [and,] more than discussing it, they had been exploring it, furtively and obliquely, in the campaign’s polling and focus groups...

To not perform due diligence on the topic, the Obamans believed, would be a dereliction of duty.

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