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Change We Can Believe In: Barack Obama's Plan to Renew America's Promise

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Folks, I've met Obama once, heard him speak in person twice, and am very much and admirer of his, but this book (the first half, at least) just doesn't cut it.

The first half of this book, apparently written by campaign satffers, attempts to spell out what "Barackism" has to offer. In other words, it's his program statement through the words of his staffers. My friends, these ideas are good, but reading this part is as exciting as watching paint dry. Dull, dull, dull. Every other sentence begins, "In an Obama administration, this or that will happen." Bring out the sominex, people.

Part 2 is the good stuff. This contains the best of his actual recent speeches from Iowa (Jan. 4, 2008) up to a speech he made this summer in Michigan about the economy (this apparently went to press before the Denver speech of Aug 28, 2008). Even on paper, this is exciting and inspiring. Highlights include the New Hampshire speech of Jan 8, 2008 (best known as the "Yes We Can" speech), the Father's day speech (the one that inadvertantly killed off Jesse Jackson's career after the Rev. was caught making profane and jealous remarks on camera about this message), and his race speech in Philadelphia which articulates what a lot of us post-movement Blacks feel about the bitter ranting and pessimism that passes for Black nationalism.

So for reading the "Best of Barack" in his own words, it's pretty good. The rest? Let the buyer beware. Readers are better off with the various compilations of the "Best of Barack" in speeches and writings.

This calm, straightforward book reminds me why I have a "Women for Obama" bumper sticker on my truck. It's short on rhetoric, long on clear-headed, specific ideas on how to fix America's problems. In back are seven key speeches from this long presidential campaign, speeches so beautifully written they read like poetry. Any voter wanting to know more about who Barack Obama is and what he stands for should read this book.

In essence, it's a glimpse into what Obama will do as president, why these actions are smart, and how he'll get the plan done. It's like a presidential crystal ball, letting readers know what they're voting for -- or against.

Change We Can Believe In was put together by Obama for America, with a foreword by the candidate. Net proceeds from book sales will be donated to charity.

The speeches soar. The "race" speech Obama gave in Philadelphia is striking in its honesty: it is from a leader, not a politician. From the New Hampshire Primary Night speech: "And so tomorrow, as we take this campaign south and west, as we learn that the struggles of the textile worker in Spartanburg are not so different than the plight of the dishwasher in Las Vegas; that the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of L.A.; we will remember that there is something happening in America: that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people; we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next great chapter in America's story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea. Yes. We. Can."

Here's the chapter list:

Foreword by Barack Obama

Part One: The Plan

Introduction: Hope for America

1. Reviving Our Economy: Strengthening the Middle Class
* Provide immediate relief with an emergency economic plan
* Economic security and opportunity for all American families
* Affordable health care for all Americans
* Empower families to succeed
* Restore trust, return to fiscal responsibility

2. Investing In Our Prosperity: Creating our Economic Future
* Promote our energy independence and create five million green jobs
* A world-class education for every American
* Make America the undisputed leader in science and technology
* Build the infrastructure of the twenty-first century
* Help our small businesses and manufacturers thrive and create jobs
* Compete and thrive in the global economy

3. Rebuilding America's Leadership: Restoring our Place in the World
* End the war in Iraq responsibly
* Finish the fight against Al Qaeda and turn the tide against global terrorism
* Rebuild a strong twenty-first-century military
* Stop the spread of nuclear weapons
* Renew our alliances to meet new global challenges

4. Perfecting Our Union: Embracing America's Values
* Restore trust in government and clean up Washington
* Make voluntary citizen service universal
* Partner with communities of faith
* Strengthen families
* Advance equal opportunity for all Americans
* Secure our borders and reform a broken immigration system
* Safeguard the environment for future generations
* Honor sportsmen and protect the great outdoors
* Fight crime and promote public safety

Conclusion: Yes We Can

Part Two: The Call

Declaration of Candidacy, Feb. 10, 2007, Springfield, Illinois

Iowa Caucus Night, Jan. 3, 2008, Des Moines, Iowa

New Hampshire Primary Night, Jan. 8, 2008, Nashua, New Hampshire

A More Perfect Union, March 18, 2008, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Father's Day 2008, June 15, 2008, Chicago, Illinois

Renewing American Competitiveness, June 16, 2008, Flint, Michigan

A World That Stands As One, July 24, 2008, Berlin, Germany

This book is written by others presenting President Obama's positions on critical problems facing the American people. It shows that his adgenda is too large and going forward with 20:20 forsight you can predict what is going to happen....

Change We Can Believe In: Barack Obama's Plan to Renew America's Promise is stunning in its detail of his policy proposals and presents a well-explained reason to support his candidacy.

Publishing a book is a different way for a candidate to outline a vision for the country; however, I see this potentially backfiring. Regardless of where the book proceeds go or who benefits, this will be seen by some as another way Senator Obama is furthering his personal (non-political) stature through the campaign.

I still think this is a remarkable tome in its depth and reasoning for his policy positions and presents the strongest case for his candidacy yet. Now if only there was a way to put this book in the living rooms of families across the country and have them actually read and digest and discuss these proposals. Only then would there be a true debate on the issues.

I applaud this effort and highly recommend reading this book.

If you want to know why the Barack Obama campaign thinks you should vote for him in November 2008, this is the book for you.
It is a campaign book, lacking the distinct voice that rings through Obama's own writing. The dry writing and dated subject, banished this book to the bookcase after only three chapters. Not even worth the time to finish.
Written before the financial meltdown had become evident, it's usefulness is questionable, other than as a bit of memorabilia recalling President Obama's historic achievement.

Barack Obama's previous books, especially Audacity, speak eloquently about his vision of politics. This new books speaks with equal clarity and wisdom at greater length about his vision of government. The first two-thirds of the book present "The Plan" for reviving our broken economy, exploiting new technology, confronting our enemies abroad, and fixing a government that helps the few and ignores the many. The final third contains some of his best speeches. The book provides readable details about what President Obama's priorities would be. It successfully blends large themes--like reducing government waste and encouraging American entrepreneurship--with corresponding specifics--like requiring disclosure of legislative earmarks and exempting start-up companies from capital gains taxes. The book is as compelling as it is important.

I read this book hoping to get a concrete look at what Obama plans to accomplish, hoping it was not another compilation of speech excerpts on the campaign trail. It is more than just a concise list of issues, but also how he intends to deal with them. The problem is this, he intends to finance programs, lower taxes which SHOULD create jobs. This is all well and good, EXCEPT he intends to balance the budget as icing on the cake. As we have seen in his pivotal "First Hundred Days", he spent A LOT of money, but very little on ANY of the programs he set out to fund. He bashes Bush for ruining the Clinton surplus and rightfully so, but at the rate he is going, Obama will EASILY pass FDR during the Great Depression.

Cataloging the list of his intended goals, it sounds GREAT, but Obama has bit off more than he can chew. It will take him more than his maximum 8 years to accomplish all these goals, especially since the current economic crisis has kept him from addressing a lion's share of the list already. His biggest decision now will be what to discard.

One last thing that bothers me, the book opens chastising the bipartisan politics which have infected this country from its inception then goes on to bash the Bush administration left and right. This is unnecessary since it is OBVIOUS what the Bush administration has done or failed to do. State the points with out the constant "which the current administration has screwed up". Anyone reading the book knows what the Bush administration did, no need to toss rocks when you come from a glass house.

This book presents a compelling set of policy proposals on every major issue confronting our nation. It's not just an overly managed, overly sanitized campaign tome. It asks hard questions and provides clear, practical answers. In a time when increasing income inequality and polarization between the parties challenge the ability of ordinary citizens to make democracy work, this book lays out a detailed vision for change--and one that actually seems possible. For example, Obama has a clear, sensible plan for removing the influence of lobbyists in Washington, that involves things like creating an independent agency to investigate congressional ethics, closing the revolving door on lobbyists, and making information about what goes on in government more accessible to ordinary folks. These are practical ways to make government more open to citizens. I found it very easy to read, since Obama writes about policy change in a straightforward way that makes it easy to understand what the problem is, what the challenges to making change are, and how we can negotiate contradictions and conflict to find solutions.

A month before the 2010 mid-term elections is as good a time as any to see how our new president is doing. This book provides and unmistakable metric for evaluating the president's performance, so far during the first half of his term. It also puts clearly on the record BHO's rhetorical positions and platform. And thus, it serves as the perfect metric for evaluating BHO's success, so far. And while it would be unfair and premature to prejudge him on everything he has promised, just half way through his first term, it is not unfair to judge him on those aspects of his promises that he has kept and that have already been implemented as Obama successes. That in my view is the primary utility of this book.

The good news is that, President Obama (against severe opposition from Republicans and from corporate lobbyists), has managed to keep many of the campaign promises listed in his platform on pages 23-24, to: reform health care, curb Wall Street excesses, create a federally-funded stimulus program to help bring the nation out of the recession, and to remove American troops from the needless Iraq war. He has also pledged to eliminate the Bush/Cheney tax cuts for the rich, while not raising taxes on the middle- and lower-classes.

The bad news is that in each of these instances of his success, BHO has strove for and achieved only the absolute minimum. This lack of courage to get into the battle and defend progressive ideals, has left a bad taste in the mouth of his progressive base. By repeatedly capitulating pre-emptively to Republican pressure, demagoguery, and negotiating tactics - BHO has unnecessarily given away everything dear in the "progressive store;" and has done so often without even putting up a fight. In short, without anything in return, BHO has unnecessarily squandered away his political capital and his main political advantage: the mandate awarded to him through the election process.

For example, his healthcare reform (page 19, and 44-46), like the Cheney/Bush reforms before them, was written "of," "by" and "for" the Insurance, drug and Pharmaceutical companies. The best proof of this is that all of their stocks jumped dramatically upon enactment of the program. And even though "Obamacare" (as those on the Right derisively call it) is advertised as providing healthcare for 34 million previously uncovered Americans, in point of fact all it does is give them the right to purchase exorbitant health insurance at whatever rates the insurance and drug industries wants to charge. But more importantly, page 45 of this book says that the Obama healthcare bill will bring down cost by $2500 per family and improve quality. The truth is that even during the first year of "Obamacare," healthcare costs for everyone have continued to rise at the astonishing clip of 15-30% per year.

On curbing Wall Street excesses, again we see the same Obama tactics used repeated of taking the low road of least resistance and "going for the minimum". And again the reality of what was accomplished does not measure up to the rhetoric used in this book to advertise the success. None of the loopholes that created the financial meltdown were fixed. They were simply tightened a bit and "smoothed over" with a few "limp-wristed" transparency measured. No one was fined or jailed, and the "credit default swaps," and the building of Bernie Madoff like Ponzi schemes can continue unabated.

But worse than this, on the federal stimulus package, BHO was bullied into allowing the Wall Street Bankers to have their way. And now, not only is Wall Street back to pre-crisis level profits and bonuses, but are aslo up to the same old tricks again. Never has BHO appeared weaker than when he is standing by watching as Wall street holds the jobs for working Americans and small businesses hostage to further relaxation of rules and greater tax cuts for the rich.

On removing troops from Iraq, the language in the terms of reference for withdrawing have been finessed so skillfully, watered-down and made so fuzzy, that even a slew of lawyers from K-street cannot determine when we will actually leave Iraq, if ever? Candidate Obama ran, and won office as an anti-war politician, yet, as President he has adopted the Cheney/Bush strategy of increasing U.S. presence in Afghanistan. So far, the success (or failure) there lies well hidden under the "fog of war."

Thus we can see from this book that even on the things that BHO has accomplished, there always is an unmistakable taint: All of BHO's victories seems pyrrhic. In every case there is a disturbing trend of BHO lacking a enthusiasm for core principles that will commit him to fight for the causes of those who elected him. If this trend continues, the campaign slogans that bracket this book of "Audacity of Hope" and "Change that we can believe in," can be safely discarded and placed on the scrape heap of history and Obama can forget any thoughts of a second term presidency. Two stars

With the party conventions over, it is now zero hour for both candidates. While John McCain's impulsiveness appears to be giving him some traction in consolidating his party base, Barack Obama reminds the American public that change is not a commodity to dole out as a pure diatribe against the Bush administration. Much like Bill Clinton and Al Gore's 1992 book, Putting People First: How We Can All Change America, the timing of this policy book from the Obama camp is a noteworthy attempt at transcending political lines to get to the heart of what change Obama proposes as President and how he plans to implement his policies as part of a strategic road map toward economic prosperity and regaining the nation's standing on a global level.

Because Obama has been so eloquent with his first two books, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance and The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, the lack of a first-person voice in the first two-thirds of the book was initially off-putting to me. However, what dawned on me as I was reading his stepwise proposals was how his policies have become larger than even his media-ready personality. The transformative nature of the text resonates more in the third person since the policies reflect a singular vision of sweeping change that is almost overwhelming in its scope but at the same time, attainable and inevitable. That is how the book reflects Obama's purest gift, the ability to inspire and to get people to look beyond their own personal needs. The Obama team divides his plan into four distinct components:

-- Reviving the economy by creating bottom-up growth, foregoing policies that protect special interest groups, and providing affordable health care.
-- Fortifying our economic future by introducing five million green jobs, investing in education, and playing a more effective role in globalization to keep up with exploding economies like China and India.
-- Rebuilding the nation's leadership on a global scale by ending the Iraqi conflict responsibly, refocusing efforts on thwarting global terrorism, and renewing alliances that have been unwisely ignored during the last administration.
-- Embracing the values of the citizenry by forging trust in the government, encouraging public participation and service, and turning the tide on the pervasive cynicism destroying the national fabric.

Obama's personal voice comes back in full force in the last third of the book with the complete text of seven rousing speeches he gave over the course of the campaign. They range from his brief tribute to fathers who take responsibility for their children's future to his clarion call in Flint, Mi, to renew American competitiveness. Three years ago, McCain co-wrote a fine book targeted to young adults, Character Is Destiny: Inspiring Stories Every Young Person Should Know and Every Adult Should Remember, which identified 34 role models, all of whom followed their conscience against seemingly insurmountable odds to achieve their sense of truth and decency. It is a book similar in intent to John F. Kennedy's Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Profiles in Courage: Decisive Moments in the Lives of Celebrated Americans. Had they not become political opponents this year, I really believe McCain would have given due consideration to include Obama.