Renegade: The Making of a President

Renegade: The Making of a President by Richard Wolffe

After listening to President Barack Obama’s two outstanding autobiographical memoirs, Dreams From My Father: a Story of Race and Inheritance and The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, I decided to listen to Renegade: the Making of a President by Richard Wolffe for an outside viewpoint. Author Richard Wolffe is a journalist and political analyst for MSNBC-TV. The CD was narrated by actor and screenwriter Arthur Morey who had an uncanny ability to replicate the President’s speech patterns, as well as those of other staff members.

Wolffe took me inside the mind of the gifted man who is our new President. Although I was already extremely impressed with show more Obama’s intellect, humility, and empathy for others, this book solidified my allegiance to the world leader. President Obama is truly a classy man. -> Is this ok to leave in? AM

Wolffe was allowed inside the cloistered cadre of Obama’s advisors from the beginning of his presidential campaign, through the grueling Iowa caucuses, and eventually on to victory. Through these exclusive interviews, Wolff aptly conveyed the mutual love and respect between Obama and his trusted advisors. I had no idea that Marty Nesbitt, one of Obama’s best friends and campaign treasurer, was such an emotional man. It was refreshing to learn that Obama valued differences of opinion among his inner circle — Raham Emanuel (Chief of Staff), Valerie Jarrett (Senior Advisor), David Axelrod (Senior Advisor), and Pete Rouse (Senior Advisor).

Check out this gem of a book, you will be delighted and amazed. I recommend the audio version. show less

Reading Richard Wolffe's Renegade in the context of the last four years, instead of less than a year after Barack Obama's 2008 victory, helps one realize how pragmatic the then junior of Illinois really was in his political thinking even as he challenged the establishment. Throughout the book, Wolffe threads the narrative of the nearly two-year campaign with Obama's biography and life experiences to help give an informed view of Barack Obama and how he used those experiences to shape his campaign and political policies he used. But this book wasn't a glorification nor idealization of Obama himself nor was to a glowing account about how perfect his entire campaign was, as Wolffe shows Obama angry and frustrated like anyone who was show more campaigning for President of the United States and highlighted the small and large mistakes members of the campaign made.

There were a few problems I had with the book, though both were how Wolffe decided to structure the material he presented and both played into one another. The transitions between Obama's personal experiences that helped shape him with the campaign issue that brought about said experience were not always ideal, which occasional resulted in some rough reading. Combined with this was that Wolffe would jump back and forth along the two-year timeline in which the campaign took place, though it was partly understandable as Wolffe wanted to give the whole narrative of the issue he was covering but then returning to earlier in the timeline with the next issue was a little jarring.

Given both the positives and negatives this is a book I would recommend for anyone who seriously wants to understand how Barack Obama came to his policy views and how he changed from the junior senator from Illinois to major party nominee to President of the United States. show less

4593. Renegade The Making of a President, by Richard Wolffe (read 11 Jul 2009) The author traveled with Obama all through the campaign, from his announcement in February 2007 till his election. But the book tells nothing about the inside of the McCain campaign--unlike Teddy White's books, which somehow managed to tell about both camps.. Wolffe says good things about Obama and I agreed and appreciated that, but I found the book rather dry and not as exciting as books about politics often are. So I was disappointed in the book--maybe because so much is still so fresh in my mind about that long campaign which turned out so gloriously.

Well written and interesting book. I enjoyed learning about Barack Obama. The story is largely about his presidential campaign but also provides some information from other times in his life. I recommend the book and now am interested in reading some of Barak's books.

I love watching Richard Wolffe on MSNBC; his commentary is usually very insightful. That's why I was particularly disappointed by Renegade. Mr. Wolffe's writing seemed unnatural, with sentence fragments and repetition of the word "renegade" that felt forced. The campaign was presented disjointedly, without chronological or any other logical order of events. Perhaps Mr. Wolffe hasn't figure out how to escape his journalist roots; I felt as though I'd read a greatest hits of newspaper election coverage.

I generally enjoyed this book, but I wish it had been presented in chronological order. The back and forth movement in time is very clunky and seriously impedes the flow of the book.

Richard Wolffe is a journalist for MSNBC and shares his interviews and experiences as he covered the Barack Obama's political campaign for President. The book is aa little confusing because it does not follow in chronological order.