Trash-talking, back-biting, and turmoil: 4 revelations about the Obama campaign

Politico's Glenn Thrush is out with a juicy e-book about the discord on a political team once celebrated for its lack of drama

President Obama has embraced negative campaigning, and is known to trash-talk his GOP opponents, says Politico's Glenn Thrush.
(Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Barack Obama's well-oiled 2008 presidential campaign was widely celebrated "for its exceptional cohesion and eyes-on-the-prize strategic focus," says Glenn Thrush at Politico. This year, not so much. Excerpting his new e-book on the Obama 2012 re-election effort, Thrush says interviews with two dozen current and former members of Obama's team reveal a campaign in Chicago and the White House marked by infighting, trash-talking, and second-guessing. Here, four takeaways from Thrush's Obama's Last Stand:

1. Team Obama is rife with clashing egos

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