Race of a Lifetime: How Obama Won the White House

Extract

'Senator Clinton would like to speak with you,' one of her people told Obama. So Obama ambled over to Clinton as she stood there on the tarmac.

I'm sorry about what Bill said, Hillary began. I didn't know he was going to do that. I'm not running that kind of campaign.

That's fine, Hillary, Obama replied. But this wasn't an isolated incident. There were those emails in Iowa…

Now, hold on a second! said Clinton, cutting Obama off, uncorking the long list of grievances she'd been stewing on for months. What about Geffen? What about attacking her about her White House papers? The list went on and on.

For the next few minutes, the two went at it in animated fashion. Bug-eyed, red-faced, waving her arms, Hillary pointed at Obama's chest. Obama tried to calm her down by putting his hand on her shoulder—but that only made her angrier. Finally, they broke from the clinch, stalking back to their respective planes.

'Wow, that was surreal,' Obama told his chief strategist. He was struck by her fury, and more than that, he thought that she seemed shaken. 'You could see something in her eyes,' he said, something he hadn't seen before. Maybe it was fear. Maybe desperation. 'You know what?' Obama said. 'We're doing something right.'