The Amateur [Hardcover]

Edward Klein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2012

Klein, who is known for getting the inside scoop on everyone from the Kennedys to the Clintons, reveals never-before-published details about the Obama administration's political inner workings, as well as Barack and Michelle's personal lives.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Think you know the real Barack Obama? You don’t—not until you’ve read The Amateur

In this stunning exposé, bestselling author Edward Klein—a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, former foreign editor of Newsweek, and former editor-in-chief of the New York Times Magazine—pulls back the curtain on one of the most secretive White Houses in history. He reveals a callow, thin-skinned, arrogant president with messianic dreams of grandeur supported by a cast of true-believers, all of them united by leftist politics and an amateurish understanding of executive leadership.

In The Amateur you’ll discover:

• Why the so-called “centrist” Obama is actually in revolt against the values of the society he was elected to lead
  
• Why Bill Clinton loathes Barack Obama and tried to get Hillary to run against him in 2012
  
• The spiteful rivalry between Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey
  
• How Obama split the Kennedy family
  
• How Obama has taken more of a personal role in making foreign policy than any president since Richard Nixon—with disastrous results
  
• How Michelle Obama and Valerie Jarrett are the real powers behind the White House throne
  

The Amateur is a reporter’s book, buttressed by nearly 200 interviews, many of them with the insiders who know Obama best. The result is the most important political book of the year. You will never look at Barack Obama the same way again.

From the Back Cover

Praise for The Amateur


“The Amateur is the best book I’ve read on how Barack Obama is wrecking our country. I urge everyone who cares about America to read Edward Klein’s eye-opening book.”
—Donald J. Trump, world-famous businessman, owner and host of the hit NBC TV shows The Apprentice and Celebrity Apprentice, and bestselling author of many titles, including Time to Get Tough: Making America #1 Again


“This is a racy, entertaining, informative book that illuminates aspects of Obama and his team that have not been previously reported. A necessary antidote to the Obama worship that is sure to characterize the election debate.”
—Dinesh D’Souza, president of The King’s College and bestselling author of The Roots of Obama’s Rage


“All the horrors I predicted in Welcome to Obamaland have now been definitively proven true by Edward Klein’s rip-roaringly readable new book The Amateur, which uses great stories and great reporting to illustrate just how ideological, arrogant, and hapless Obama and his administration really are. An outstanding demolition job on the most overrated president of our time.”
—James Delingpole, columnist for the Daily Telegraph and the Spectator and author of Welcome to Obamaland


“A devastating indictment of the lethal combination of incompetence and radicalism that has made Obama into one of the worst presidents in American history.”
—Norman Podhoretz, former editor of Commentary magazine and author of many books, including most recently, Why Are Jews Liberals?

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Regnery Publishing; First Edition edition (May 15, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596987855
• ISBN-13: 978-1596987852
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.2 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1,808 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,678 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #13 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > United States > Executive Branch
  • #31 in Books > History > Americas > United States > 21st Century
  • #43 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Ideologies & Doctrines > Conservatism & Liberalism

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1,112 of 1,278 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars slanted but worth reading May 22, 2012

By book lover

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Those who think Obama walks on water and have their minds made up will not like this book. Those who think Obama is the devil will love it, but have probably heard all the stories already anyway. For those who fall in between, I think the book is worth reading. Yes, it's slanted, but if you read beyond that you'll come away with some insights into this president and his administration. The first chapters are the most incendiary and the least informative since they rehash old stuff. But the second half gets into some behind the scenes stuff that's worth knowing. What disturbs me most is how far in over his head Obama is and how he surrounds himself with people who feed his ego and/or protect him rather than providing him with a broad understanding of the issues. He is a politician not a leader and I find that both sad and frightening.

1,219 of 1,403 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Can't Put Down Book that Will Withstand the Obama Attack Machine May 21, 2012

By Kris Zane

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought Edward Klein's The Amateur the day it came out; the day Klein revealed on Sean Hannity's radio show that he had audio tapes of the pastor that Obama threw under the bus, Jeremiah Wright, stating that in 2008 Obama crony Eric Whitaker had offered him $150K to keep his mouth shut until after the election. Contrary to the naysayers of Klein's previous exposé on Hillary Clinton, critics' ad hominem attacks on Klein regarding The Amateur this time are ringing false, as the Top Ten slot on Amazon's best seller list shows. Klein names names, interviewing over two hundred people for the book, including Obama's two-decades-long former doctor, who makes the claim that Obama is basically a hollow shell, with no real emotion, and no connection to people. Klein "has the goods," so to speak: in regard to the Eric Whitaker bribery, it is not merely a hidden microphone that caught Wright stating this. It is within an open, 3 1/2 hour interview, where Wright not only states he was bribed, but has the email to prove it. Wright makes other statements, such as Obama's Muslim background, his fickle belief in Christianity, and his two-decades-long allegiance to Trinity United Church of Christ for purely political reasons.

I downloaded the book to my Kindle within hours of its release, and read it over a day and a half period, only pausing to sleep. Probably the two most enjoyable-to-read revelations are that 1. Bill Clinton urged Hillary to challenge Obama in 2012. 2. The Kennedy clan despise Obama, despite deceased Ted Kennedy's tireless support of the Community Organizer-in-Chief.

An anecdote is described where Bill and Hillary Clinton are having an argument that took place over several days (a screaming match actually, with a dozen people present); that, because Obama had basically destroyed the economy, caused the downgrade of the U.S.'s credit rating for the first time in history, etc., etc.; that Obama was, according to Bill Clinton, an "Amateur" (this is the source of the title of the book); that Hillary needed to challenge Obama in 2012 in order to save the country from sliding off the cliff.

The Kennedy clan anecdote is jaw-dropping. All of the Kennedy clan (save Robert Kennedy, Jr.) had stood behind Obama in 2008. But after Obama's coronation and repeated miffs by the First Family: 1. The Obamas ignored an invitation to the Kennedy Compound while vacation at Martha's Vineyard. 2. Michelle Obama treated Caroline Kennedy (daughter of JFK) like hired help while at the White House, shaking her hand coldly, taking a quick photo, and making a quick exit--after these and other miffs the Kennedy royalty at a pow wow had had enough (at one point Robert Kennedy, Jr. shattered a glass in his hand) and got the message from the Obamas loud and clear: rich people are evil, and wanted no more to do with the former community organizers.

Contrary to Obama's 'Attack Watch' claim of the book being totally discredited (whereby they don't actually reference anything in the book, but simply go on an ad hominem attack), the book is meticulously researched and at the same time highly readable. It is at the time of this writing #9 on Amazon's bestseller list, and hopefully it will reach #1, whereby at that point the majority of Americans will have read about the current "Amateur" in office being completely unqualified for the job; and realize that when a person is unqualified for a job, are incompetent, that the only remedy is either resignation or being fired.

I vote for being fired.

880 of 1,012 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Read this book before you vote in Nov May 20, 2012

By dukeno1

Format:Kindle Edition

A few observations:
1) Bill Clinton was right. Hillary should have run in the primary against Obama. Klein's work reveals the broad support she would have had amongst Obama's 2008 supporters.
2) For the mainstream media, and their unquestioning adherents, The Amateur reveals you're missing a great political game.
3) Ed Klein's research is frightening in revealing Obama's lack of character. Out of decency, how does he not offer gratitude regularly to the Kennedys, Oprah, the Chicago and other early African-Americans supporters who launched him , and finally to his Jewish supporters who "earned like Episcopalians and voted like Puerto Ricans"? Politically, forget about morality now, by not having done so, he may be forced to exit the White House.
4) Finally, Klein's detractors seek to impeach Klein's integrity based on conclusions in the author's prior works. No one has disproved that the many interviews in The Amateur with Obama's 2008 supporters did not happen or contain misquotes.
The Amateur, easily readable and yet broad in scope, should be read by many an American voter. If only the mainstream press would read the book, too . .