Barack Obama

Published reviews support this being one of the better presidential memoirs, a genre usually made dry as dust while promoting an "I did everything right" argument. This one is about as humble as you can imagine coming from a POTUS. Obama has no end of praise for the people around him, as if he only profited from their work, but he does allow that he has a talent for speech-writing. That clearly carries over into recording his memoirs. Obama chose every word himself (no one else has author show more credit). He is excellent in his descriptions and clarity. Given the wide-ranging issues and complexities, Obama has a real gift for simplifying his subject matter without dumbing it down. It's very important to him that everyone who reads his book understands the ins and outs, and often the history, something that he says didn't work in speeches but works very well here. Perhaps as he did this, he was also writing for the ages.

The shared details are sometimes surprising: the exact order of occupants in the series of cars driving to his inauguration, the safety features of Air Force One, etc. I presume all of this received some kind of vetting and clearance, and there may be a great deal more that he isn't telling us. He plays down Hollywood images: the Situation Room is nothing to marvel at, the interior of Air Force One is still 1980s decor and features worse wi-fi than private airlines, his state-of-the-art connection to Washington cut out while he was in Brazil, etc. But even while brushing off those illusions he almost creates a big one of his own: that the president's job is straightforward. I'd almost believe I could do it as well, if it is only a matter of having the decisions presented to me and choosing the least worst option according to my best advisors. Somehow, I think there's more to it. The answer lies partly hidden behind Obama's modesty, and partly by the simplified narrative. We only get one brief glimpse of the real overlap he faced in having to multitask many issues at once, during his telling of the Deepwater Horizon crisis.

He also writes insightfully about race relations, and especially about the image he projected during his first campaign. In chapter six he explores why he approached the campaign not as a champion for black rights but a champion for all of the downtrodden, whatever their background. There were consequences for what he did, risks he took, obvious on reflection but not visible in his constant smile: the fears of those behind the scenes who felt certain any black man aspiring to be President was certain to be shot at, supported by the secret service's warning that they had never seen so many threats against a candidate before.

On the political side, which of course is most of the content, Obama's theme may be summed up in this one line: "The Recovery Act passed the House 244 to 188 with precisely zero Republican votes. It was the opening salvo in a battle plan that McConnell, Boehner, Cantor, and the rest would employ with impressive discipline for the next eight years." It's a stark picture, and Obama attaches his opinion of what this strictly partisan attitude meant - and still means - for the state of his country. If Obama is being objective then the Republican party is in a very sorry state. If he's not (but how not?), perhaps he is jealous of the Republican party whip.

This memoir ends at not quite the conclusion of his first term, with the tracking down of Osama bin Laden. The NYT points out that Nelson Mandela told his entire life story in fewer pages, but Obama is telling his story so well that I can't see where he ought to have condensed it. I hardly followed his presidency from here in Canada while it was happening, but I've a greater appreciation now for what he accomplished while in office. Even if later it is for no other reason than because he was the first black President, I'm sure that he will remain under the historical microscope for as long as American history is studied. All of those studies, whether for or against him, are going to benefit enormously from this tremendous job he has committed to paper. show less

While I really enjoyed A Promised Land as a whole, I have to admit it’s best enjoyed one bite at a time. The audiobook is nearly 30 hours – a fairly long read! Because this is a presidential memoir, it’s also filled with political churnings. Regardless of your personal perspective, politics get exhausting after 30 hours. But all that said, I found the behind-the-scenes look fascinating.

There is so much packed into this book. The pacing starts off pretty steadily, with Obama speaking show more about his early campaigns and setting Michelle. As the book goes on and we get into his presidency, the pace picks up and so does the amount of information. By the end of A Promised Land, one significant event was packed in after another without time to breathe. It was a little anxiety-inducing for me, so I can’t imagine how stressful it was to actually be in charge of or on the receiving end of so many of the things discussed during the second half of the book.

There is a balanced voice to many of the things discussed here, but the further into the presidency we get, the clearer his own personal frustrations are. Since this is a memoir and not purely a piece of historical non-fiction, this is both fine and accepted. However, I do want to mention that the exasperation with Mitch McConnell and Republican senators is clear, and his commentary on Donald Trump is more harsh. This book will not sit well with stalwart Republicans and Trump fans, though for those who are interested in a rounded view of politics, it is still an important read.

Please don’t take this to mean Obama spends the book in bi-partisan bashing. In fact, there is a clear frustration with bi-partisanism and there are several instances where he praises Republican senators or representatives. In fact, it’s an interesting perspective on the shift of priorities in the Republican party during his presidency, which ultimately lead to the party as it is today.

It’s challenging to talk about a political memoir like this without showing my biases. I will be honest and say that I’ve always liked Obama and my reading of the book is a bit biased – I find it easy to sympathize with the frustrations his voices because they are many of the same things I feel myself. While objectively this book is extremely well-written and accessible, enjoyment of it will certainly fall to individual political views. I’m not sure there’s any way around that in a presidential memoir.

A Promised Land is an excellent read if you are interested in the Obama family or administration. It’s also good insight for a well-rounded political view. However, it’s important to be aware of the inherent biases coming from a memoir… and also know it’s a bit thick so take it slow. show less

This was a surprisingly interesting book. It was an odd combination of personal anecdotes and policy proposals. Odd, for me, because, when I read about politics, I am used to more abstract, academic fare. The anecdotes lend a certain weight to the proposals. You don't just learn what Obama's political positions are, but also why he holds those positions. It's also quite well written.

This adds a similar weight to his (better-known) speeches as well. For example, when Obama talks about show more bipartisanship, he really means it. Having read this book, I can see how they are those lines in his speeches are not just (for him) empty platitudes. He seems to really mean them, because in the book, he gives not just the position but an argument for the position and specific, concrete reasons for it, on both a policy level and a personal level. The time and effort he puts into his arguments here (and, in my opinion, their effectiveness) strongly suggest that he's completely sincere.

His sincerity (on the issue of bipartisanship) is further supported by a recent news story I read where he asked Congressional Democrats to make further compromises on a stimulus bill, in order to get more Republican votes, even though the Democrats already had enough votes to win. I get the impression that a lot of people have heard him speak, but few have yet taken what he's said seriously. Had Democrats on the Hill complaining bothered to read his book, they might not have been surprised.

I was struck by how often he used variations on the phrase 'a new consensus'. If you take his arguments seriously, then this would mean that, for Obama, compromise is not a means, it's an end. That is, he's not a centrist is the mold of Bill Clinton, willing to compromise in order to achieve and stay in power and maybe do some good in the meantime. Obama, on the other hand, presents compromise as a goal with value in itself.

Compromise is itself a virtue in two senses. First, more generally, compromise is what democracy is all about, the very process itself. To dismiss it as merely a means to an end is to dismiss democracy itself in the same way. Second, compromise is a virtue for the sake of progressive causes as well. Changes and improvements achieved by compromise--a compromise that takes the form of a 'new consensus'--have the capacity to have vastly more impact and staying power. Why simply change a law (when the next time the other guys are in power they'll just change it back), when you can change peoples minds (the common consensus) instead. This isn't just pie-in-the-sky naivete, but a political strategy for lasting, effective change. By way of precedent, FDR didn't just enact the reforms of the New Deal, he was able to forge a common consensus between Democrats and moderate Republicans that lasted (at least) 50 years. Johnson did the same thing with the Voting Rights Act. The point isn't that everyone has to agree and sing songs around the campfire, but only that enough people agree for long enough that the reform in question becomes a basic assumption for future political discourse.

It will be fascinating to see if he will be able to get it to work.

Anyone interested in American politics would benefit from this book. Whether you agree with his goals or not, this book goes a long way to explaining his strategies and motives. show less

The basic theme of this book is “I did the best I could,” and I think it is further evidence for the tragic reading of his presidency: The very thing that made him electable—his sincere and unflagging faith in the ability of white Americans to come together with Black Americans in particular—made him unable, both temperamentally and to a certain extent politically, to play hardball with Republican intransigience. One appalling thing I learned from the book is that their internal show more polling found that the controversy over his comments on Henry Louis Gates and the cop who arrested him on his own front porch caused his support to drop substantially among whites, and that support never returned. That’s a lot of racism. show less