david maraniss, my friend to is a brilliant book writer and has written a great biography of obama said to me at one point during not late 2011, you know, with all due respect to use serious political reporters we really ms. hunter thompson right now. [laughter] i agree with him. when i got done with this as i was finishing this book was struck me about the 2012 campaign and one of the reasons why i picked the subtitle is that i think that that 2012 campaign told us more about who we are as a country, where we are politically and where we may be heading. in other words, the 2008 campaign for all the drama and excitement was in many ways a kind of fall syndicator. 2012 in the gritty this, as you say, the kind of emptiness of the contents, the nastiness of that times and the deep polarization tells us more about where we are and bear we're likely to head over the foreseeable future. >> i think you touched on something there that john nichols in your book you certainly right about it as well you have a liner lyonnais says that in 2012 money be money. that indictment of our current politica