Really peels back the curtain on some of the statistical and data techniques modern campaigns use to isolate voters — as well as some of the historical battles data-minded politicos waged to win acceptance for their methods. (In Issenberg's book, first published in 2012, the apotheosis of the data-driven campaign is Barack Obama's 2008 and 2012 efforts, but his book makes it clear that each new development in tactics or methodology never remains cutting edge for more than one or two election cycles.) Lots of interviews with people in both parties who have pushed these methods, most of them obscure. Pretty well-written and a fast read. My highest tribute: reading about this stuff makes me want to run some regressions myself. ( )

I think this is an interesting, insightful look at the campaign and election process. As some others have noted, if you are not interested in politics, this might not be the book for you.

Great story of the work of political campaigns and political participation generally. Someone interested in applying the methods in another context, such as another country, must keep in mind how much they rely on the public voting files that give information of whether someone voted. Without these, the microtargeting made possible by matching the voter records with consumer databases and census information would not be feasible, and it would make experimentation much more difficult.

One thing that bothers me: The actual politics is often lost sight of. It would be great if these advances also could contribute to improving policy. ( )

The reason that I have always been interested in politics is because of the ideas behind the political contests. I want to ensure that the person who is elected to whatever position they are running for holds the same values and concerns that I do. Such idealism is not what this book is about. It is, as one of the back of the book blurbs says, Moneyball for politics. The author examines the various techniques that both Democrats and Republicans have come up with, based on social science and economic models, to determine who they can persuade to vote for their candidate and how to persuade people to actually get to the polls on election day once they are registered.
For the most part I enjoyed following the trail of a new innovation to learn how a hunch that a certain method would work turned into an experiment and then turned into a standard campaigning practice. My only complaint was that it is a little heavy on the nitty-gritty details of the economic and mathematical models being used. However, I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in politics or anyone who is interested in how mathematical and statistical models can have an impact on our government. ( )

I received this book just ahead of the 2012 election, and I was disappointed that I had such a hard time getting into it. Once I got about a third of the way, things kind of clicked and I was able to finish it in a few hours.

The book is thankfully non-partisan account on the history of our campaign culture and everything that goes into an election campaign today. This is one of the books that makes you smarter; a definite must-read for anyone who cares about behind-the-scenes election machinations. ( )