--- title: Game Change: Why Harry Reid Said What He Said | TIME description: Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, authors of the new book <i>Game Change</i>, tell TIME managing editor Rick Stengel why Harry Reid encouraged Barack Obama to run for President canonical: https://time.com/video/aBy0EkHy/ og:title: Game Change: Why Harry Reid Said What He Said og:description: Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, authors of the new book <i>Game Change</i>, tell TIME managing editor Rick Stengel why Harry Reid encouraged Barack Obama to run for President og:url: https://time.com/video/aBy0EkHy/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/aBy0EkHy/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Game Change: Why Harry Reid Said What He Said twitter:description: Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, authors of the new book <i>Game Change</i>, tell TIME managing editor Rick Stengel why Harry Reid encouraged Barack Obama to run for President twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/aBy0EkHy/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Game Change: Why Harry Reid Said What He Said > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Game Change: Why Harry Reid Said What He Said [Watch (HLS stream): Game Change: Why Harry Reid Said What He Said](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/aBy0EkHy.m3u8) (7:21)  _Published 2010-01-13. Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, authors of the new book Game Change, tell TIME managing editor Rick Stengel why Harry Reid encouraged Barack Obama to run for President_ --- Jul 27, 2023 1:18 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [CNN: Senator Harry Reid Opens Up](/video/n9unRX7k/) ### CNN: Senator Harry Reid Opens Up [Harry Reid Mocks Asians, Gets His Wongs Confused](/video/6t0y7wU8/) ### Harry Reid Mocks Asians, Gets His Wongs Confused [Rick Stengel on TIME Magazine's special Wireless Issue](/video/mN8uLZ2A/) ### Rick Stengel on TIME Magazine's special Wireless Issue --- ## Transcript >> Hi, I'm Rick Stengel. I'm the editor of TIME Magazine and I'm here with the authors of Game Change, Mark Halperin from TIME Magazine and John Heilemann from New York Magazine. It is a book that's having an enormous impact not only on how we perceive the 2008 Election but how we're looking politics today. Welcome, guys. >> Thank you, Rick. >> So, I was talking to both of you during the time you were reporting the book and there was a lot of conception and perception that people thought, oh why are they going back to re- report this election. You both covered the election. What did you find out that was different from what you thought had happened when you were covering the campaign in real time? >> Well, so many things, even though, as you say, we did cover the election closely. We found out factual things about the important things where there were public moments like Barack Obama courting Hillary to be the Secretary of State, or have John McCain deliberated about Sarah Palin. But behind the scenes, we found the word lot more going on the stories were different. And then there were story lines we never knew about, Barack Obama went and visited with Al Gore and Collin Powell before deciding to run for president. Those meetings had never been reported, so there's both the behind the scenes of things we knew about plus new things that no one had reported at the time. >> There's so many things also where was like, you know, there was a, as we were reporting it where revelations would come out in the course of this interviews and, and there were both incredibly accelerating and incredibly exciting because it was like we're getting closer and further inside the room than, than we've ever been and we've been pretty close into a lot in free forms, had a lot of rooms before. Also we're in, were we're there and were learning these thing is like, my God, I can't believe that this is actually happening. Exhilarating and also sort of depressing in way because it makes you realize that, as good reporters you are, while these things are going on, you're actually kinda walk around with the bag over your head because there is, there is so much that they're able to keep from you while the drama is playing out that the only possible way for you to ever really learn the story is to go back and exhume the history as we've got a chance to do in these incredibly long interviews after the fact when people are more willing to be-- to speak totally freely. >> So, let's pursue that point, how did you orchestrate this; what was the arrangement that you made with the people that you were talking to? How, how did that, how did that work? >> By its start, I think with what John just alluded to which is the volume of the interviews, you know. In journalism today, because of the demands on the internet and, and electronic media, it's rare even if you're doing a long piece to get interview to someone two or three times. Let along more of do very long interviews and what we had the luxury of doing by waiting and not rushing the book out. We interviewed some of the major figures in book more than half a dozen times. We had interviews that lasted up to six or seven hours, who is a not- at- all unusual for our interviews over 3 hundred interviews with over 200 people to last several hours, that was the norm. So that's much more material, and the puzzle comes together much more clearly if you can interview, A, B and C and then go back to B and find out say what A and C said what do you think of that? You start to build an accumulation of material but there's really no substitute for long interviews over time. >> So, let's talk a little bit about the news, that, that has been reverberating from the book. >> I've apologized to the president, I've apologized to everyone that-- then the sound of my voice that I could've use the better choice of words. >> The Harry Reid story. When I read the book, to me the astonishing thing about how I read was that in 2006, he'd gone to that a very-- then new senator from Illinois and said I think you should run for president but that's not what has been making news about Harry Reid from the book, how come? >> Well, we think that, the, for you identify is, is amongst the biggest news in the book, and the deliberations that Reid had in his head about why Obama was attracted to him is part of what has made news which is to say he saw an Obama's someone who would be a strong presidential candidate. He was part of group of senators who were quietly looking for someone's strong and have stop Hillary Clinton real concern by Harry Reid and others that Hillary Clinton was too polarizing to get elected. She win the nomination, lose the general election, dragged down democrats and Harry Reid would lose other democratic centers and going to the minority and also the built one that is the rumors about its personal life could really explode. So in searching for another candidate someone's strong enough to take her on. Reid now-- looked at the field, Chris died, Joe Biden, Tom Vilsack, Bill Richardson and others and didn't believe any of them were strong enough to take on Hillary Clinton. In Obama, Reid saw what his colleague I saw from the minute Obama got elected, in fact, even before he'd been elected, he was one of the top fundraisers for other Democratic senators. And Bill draw huge crowds not just in Democratic areas but in red sticks. And so, as Reid begin to think about Obama, one of the things that appealed to him was he does care about racial unity and he thought it'd be great to have an African- American president. How does that possible? So here's an African- American, who actually has appeal in all parts of the country not just in African- American areas or urban areas or liberal areas, and that was part of the mindset that appealed to him about Obama and why he called Obama to his office didn't tell him why he was calling him down there. Called them down there he'd say, as he said you're outta run for president and the part has gotten so much attention again was a window in means, into Reid's mindset but not for history as bigger deal as a fact that Obama was so encouraged this myth Obama learned that the Clintons would be-- to have the backing of the full establishment turned out to be wrong. >> I mean, it's kinda of stashing moment, I think, you know, you think about Obama who's only been in the Senate for 18 months and, you know, he gets his phone call from Harry Reid and his immediate reaction is, you know, what would we do wrong? It turns to upper gives than his communication directors, so what would we do wrong? Like, why is the leader wanna see me? He kinda runs over the Reid's office in the capital thinking he's gonna get yelled at or chewed out-- someone who'd be screwed up and I hearing or did he not sign on to a bill that he was supposed to co- sponsor or something. And, you know, he goes into the office and sit standing Reid says to him, [ unk ] Reid heard these rumors that Obama's already thinking about leaving the Senate. Obama hated the Senate, you know, hated it, hated it from the day he got there, he hated it. We quote him in the book saying things like, you know, is basically the same as Springfield Illinois, only the average age is higher to be just the same bullshit, it's just the older bunch of guys all yack, yack, yack, you know, he's just was impatient and there were already rumors that were going around that he might go back to Illinois run for Governor and Reid heard those rumors and he'd looked at him, salute the cross the table at him and said, you know, " You're not going anywhere here, you're not a lifetime senator, this is not what, this is not your calling but you could be the president of the United States and I think you should run and, you know, Obama goes back to big office and walks in then gives us do, I mean, what if we'd screw up and Obama says, you know, we didn't screw up anything. Harry wants me to run for president and, you know, gives that's the whole meeting was about and Obama says, " Yeah, you know, it's what the meeting was about ." And, you know, a very shortly, there after Obama's going back to Chicago, he'd just started to kinda of think that maybe this is something you might think about doing and he goes back and sits down with his friend Valerie Jarrett and she says you know, what-- tell me the story, what happened and he tells the story of the Harry Reid thing and she says, " Well, is he gonna support you and comeback and endorse you ?" and Obama says " No, he can't do that because he's, he can't get crosswise with the Clintons but-- he just thinks I-- he thinks I should run. He thinks I could win ." And Valerie Jarrett, you know, what [ unk ] says, what for the first time she could see him kind of thinking, you know, maybe I could do this. 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