WASHINGTON - A new book is providing an inside look at Barack Obama (web | news | bio) 's 2008 presidential campaign. In it, Obama's former campaign manager reveals some of their secrets and even some of their mistakes.

They had the message, the candidate and the winning playbook. But according to a new book by Obama's campaign manager, the campaign hadn't done its own homework.

When Good Morning America broadcast quotes from Obama's pastor in March 2008, the campaign was caught totally off guard.

"This very sophisticated campaign never bothered to buy the VHS tapes to see what he was saying," said Jonathan Martin, writer for Politico.com.

David Plouffe writes that while the campaign compiled thick dossiers on its opponents, officials never scrubbed their own man. "We were in denial," Plouffe writes in the "The Audacity to Win." The book underscores the fact that for all the appearances of a well-oiled machine, the Obama campaign was an exercise in on-the-job training.

"At times they were certainly operating with no net," said Martin.

Plouffe writes that one point, just a few months into the campaign the future president confessed to top aides that he was miserable on the trail.

"Are you having any fun at all?," asked Robert Gibbs, the future White House press secretary to Obama. "None," the candidate replied.

The primary campaign seemed never to end but there was one key deal Obama wouldn't cut. Plouffe writes that an aide to John Edwards reached out to say Edwards was willing to team up with Obama to beat Hillary Clinton. The aide also suggested Edwards might do the same for Clinton should Obama decline.

"Obama's answer," Plouffe writes, "was quick and firm: he would cut no deals."

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