Customer Reviews

The Promise

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

This is a vivid description of the day-to-day operation of the Obama administration in the chaotic first year of his presidency. Overall, I think it was a fair assessment of both Obama's strengths and his weaknesses.

I'm surprised that some of the reviewers here think that Alter's book is overly biased in favor of Obama.

It's clear that the writer thinks highly of Obama personally -- he portrays him as highly intelligent and possessed of effective leadership skills. But Alter is also very clear-eyed about where Obama has gone wrong in the first year of his presidency.

Alter gives Obama credit for actions early in the presidency (the bank and automaker bail-outs) that were unpopular, but probably saved the recession from tipping over into a depression, and for the historic health care legislation. With health care, Obama delivered on something that presidents since FDR have tried and failed to do. Nobody thinks it is a perfect plan but it is something that can be built on.

But Alter faults Obama in other crucial areas -- particularly jobs and housing. Obama, as portrayed by Alter, errs in relying too heavily on one set of economists -- Geithner, Summers, and their acolytes -- while essentially ignoring contradictory views. Everything had to be funnelled through Summers. Obama, in Alter's analysis, thereby encloses himself in the "bubble" that he had said he was going to try to avoid.

Alter also faults Obama for failing to communicate effectively with the American people about what he was trying to do. Obama's cool, unemotional personality does not serve him well, in a situation which required the warmth and empathy that an FDR or a Clinton were able to convey.

Alter's conclusion, apparently somewhat surprising to the writer himself, is that Obama turned out to be best at what was least expected of him -- effective executive management -- and worst in the area where he (as one of the most inspirational and eloquent speakers in recent history) was expected to shine -- communicating with the people.

I am an independent who voted for Obama in 2008 and don't regret it (although I am somewhat disappointed in his first year). However, in writing books about politicians, the political scientist in me believes it is crucial to remain objective and try to separate the spin from the reality. For whatever reason, all too often the journalists with the best access in political circles also tend to be the most biased or least analytical. Unfortunately, Jonathan Alter's The Promise: President Obama, Year One is no exception. This book is, to put it kindly, very sympathetic toward the administration.

What do I mean by "sympathetic"? I don't certainly mind if an author admires his subject or favors his policy choices. However, Alter seems determined to find no fault with Obama and dismiss all of his failures as the fault of others. In the introduction, Alter seems to blame Obama's first-year woes on the president's overconfidence in the - get this - the American people. Too often, voters are portrayed as dumb, Republicans as devious, and Obama's policy choices as all brilliant, if misunderstood. However, let's be honest - there are many people who have honest concerns about Obama's policies. I myself agree with some (foreign policy), but not others (healthcare). Sometimes, I got the sense Alter simply repeated spin from the administration. This sort of bias in The Promise: President Obama, Year One is simply unacceptable in real a history.

This type of "journalistic history" book is really built around a few revealing anecdotes, without much substance or depth. Probably the biggest reveal is that Greg Craig was offered a judgeship in an attempt to get him to leave the White House quietly. Of course, if you live outside the Beltway, you probably don't know who Greg Craig even is. There are also some interesting comparisons between Obama and Bill Clinton by staffers who worked for both. However, frankly, you could probably read about the most interesting tidbits on Politico's or other political blogs. I wouldn't recommend buying the book unless you're a political junkie.

Overall, this is a 3-star book - with that third star added in recognition of Alter's hard work getting access and anecdotes. As a study of Obama's first year, it falls short.

A note on the audiobook: Jonathan Alter reads it himself, which is a nice touch.

Barack Obama is not a saint. What a relief. "The Promise: President Obama, Year One", written by Jonathan Alter, a "Newsweek" reporter, is a refreshing change from the worshipful treatment of President Obama in "Game Change". Mr. Alter provides an even-handed treatment of the first year of the Obama presidency. He shows us a president who is all too human, making mistakes in both personnel and policies but mostly getting it right.

The reader is provided with thorough background information on all of the major players in President Obama's administration. I was especially fascinated by the description of Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's agonizing decision whether to take the job as Chief of Staff or remain in the House, eventually succeeding Nancy Pelosi to become the first Jewish Speaker of the House. First Jewish Speaker? I had no idea that anyone thought that way in the 21st century. I thought that we had put silly religious issues behind us. I'm old enough to remember when (Catholic) JFK was running for the presidency and voters (including my Goldwater Republican parents) were terrified that if he were elected, the Pope would be running the country. As history reminds us, JFK was elected and governed the country without the Pope.

First Lady Michelle Obama is treated respectfully. I was surprised to learn that despite her husband never having been subject to rumors of infidelity, she is described as "a tiger when it came to Barack and other women.", the example of Halle Berry's enthusiasm in campaigning for Obama prompting the future First Lady to forbid her husband to appear with her.

Mr. Alter's previous book, "The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope", dealt with FDR and the New Deal. Not surprisingly, he frequently draws parallels between President Obama's first year in office and FDR's first year in office. Both entered office faced with a collapsing economy. Both were forced to clean up the messes left by the previous administrations. And both passed landmark legislation in their first year, Social Security by FDR and health care reform by Obama.

It's often difficult to end a book of this length and breadth, especially with the protagonist still early in his administration and still likely to continue making history, but I found the ending to this book very satisfying. The long, drawn-out battle for health care reform takes up most of the book, but in the end the reader is reminded of President Obama's other first year accomplishments such as banning pay discrimination against women (always close to my heart), health insurance for millions of children, tightened rules governing credit cards and the crackdown on predatory lending, achievements that have become lost in the noise and confusion of the battle over health care, but which are huge victories in their own right.

I can just hear the critics now saying: "Great...another Obama book." But this is an outstanding look at Obama's first year--with highly entertaining, and never before documented, details. The author got unprecedented access, and that makes the book quite rich. The details show that Obama has an edge to him--an extremely competitive one--teetering on...well...just read the book. He seems to have his hand in everything, and is clearly the conductor of this orchestra. I found it noteworthy that as Obama wanted to pursue Health Care in his first year, Rahm Emanuel tried to talk him out of it. I also marveled at the behind-the-scenes activity surrounding the Professor Gates race issue and Beer Summit. Also, the details surrounding how he handled the economic crisis from the lonely confines of the Oval Office will be absorbing to any reader. All of the issues I was familiar with are covered in this book, but we get to see it from the administration's point of view--how they planned and plotted every move--from damage control to keeping the media at bay. In fact, there is an underlying feeling that he and his administration harbor a disdain for the corporate media, ever since they helped perpetuate the floating General Election innuendo that he was intimately linked to William Ayers, not born here, and embraced Reverend Wright's anti-Americanism--all subjects that are supremely documented and analyzed in the groundbreaking book: 71 Days: The Media Assault On Obama.

Folks should read "The Promise" and stop talking about how there are just too many Obama books being written. Besides, every president since GW has had hundreds of books written about him. It's par for the course. See Abe Lincoln's one-zillionth book. The question is: Can any of these books stand the test of time? This one certainly will. And considering that 200 years from now, the only person that elementary students will be required to know from this entire generation will be President Obama, I would say we need even more books on the man. The only presidents I had to know in elementary school were Washington and Lincoln--not Madison, Jackson, or Polk. Why?...because they were the revolutionary, symbolic ones that were romanticized to young children. Think about this: your great, great, great grandchild will have to give answers to these questions regarding US presidents: 1) who was the first president? 2) which president freed the slaves? 3) who was the first African American president? Pretty powerful, and it should make us appreciate the time period and history we're living through. "The Promise" captures a significant portion of that history.

The Promise is one of what has already been and what I am sure will be many many more books about President Obama. When evaluating a book like this and especially one that has been named a NY Times Notable Book of 2010, it is important to ask what is different about this book. Or in other words, what unique lessons can you learn from this book relative to others that are written about Obama.

The book itself didn't move particularly fast and in my opinion wasn't particularly interesting to the point where you felt like it was a page-turner. I picked it up and put it down a number of times. Overall though I did in fact like it and primarily because it gave me good insight into how Obama managed his staff and the White House. It was super interesting to read about how Obama knew ahead of time that the Democrats were not super good at managing the WH and that the Republicans and especially GWB were. Now people can say that Bush had a lot of faults but it did seem to Obama as if he was managing in a tighter way that others did. The chapters that had more to do with who Obama was as a person and specifically how he spent his offtime with his body man Reggie Love and his family were super interesting. You don't always get to read a lot about that sort of thing until the end of someone's presidency and in this case you got to see it right up front.

This look at Obama's first year in the White House was interesting and covered a lot of topics--which makes sense given the sheer number of things on the Presiden't plate on any given day. Af-Pak, the economy, picking a Cabinet, etc. A good book that provided a lot of insight into Obama the person.

Jonathan Alter has used his self-described "unique access" to the President and the White House to write what is claimed to be the first "backstory" account of President Obama's first year as President. In doing so, he provides "behind the scenes" looks at the major players as they tackled the historic challenges they faced taking office, as well as insights into the personality, character, and decision-making of the new President.

I consider it a mixed effort overall. Some of the "facts" don't necessarily contain great revelations, however it is useful to see a cohesive narrative rather than the bits and pieces we receive as events are occurring. As someone who has paid close attention as these events unfolded, it answered some of my questions about how some decisions were made. Alter shows that Obama and his team thoroughly analyzed and considered many options when it came to things like TARP, the Recovery Act, bank bailouts, auto industry intervention, etc. Whether or not you agree with the actions taken by the Administration is another subject, but anyone remotely objective who reads this book cannot help but come away with some respect and reassurance that these important issues have been tackled with intellectual rigor and a seriousness of purpose.

Some of Alter's most original and useful writing comes as he describes Obama personally and analyzes his management style. I think he does a good job of maintaining objectivity. It's easy when you have that kind of access to be coopted by your subject (see Bob Woodward's fist book about George Bush and the leadup to the Iraq War). Alter does not hesitate to point out some the flaws in Obama and his team--their tendency to be awed by their own intellectual brilliance, the pettiness of people like Larry Summers, Obama's mistakes as a communicator and with some of his legislative strategies, his struggles to publicly relate to "average people", and how quickly he started to slip into the "Washington bubble". He also points out Obama's strengths. One of the biggest question marks and source of attacks against Obama during the campaign was his so-called "lack of experience" as a government leader. It still is remarkable how quickly and confidently Obama was able to effectively assume one of the toughest executive jobs in the world with so little experience. Another one of the strengths of this book is Alter's description of how Obama essentially took over running the country -- or at least the economy-- weeks before he even took office.

The biggest criticism I have of this book is it's lack of depth and the paucity of sources cited in the material. Unfortunately the trend in recent years has been to rush these book into print as soon as possible, so their isn't time for a lot of in-depth scholarly research (again, see the Woodward books as another example, and "Game Change" as yet another). Alter has a tendency to draw conclusions and summaries that appear to be based on nothing but his opinion, and it weakens the entire book. In many ways "The Promise" reads more like an extended magazine article. For those who use this to reflexively whine about "bias", I can only say it is the exact same style that Alter uses in his book about Franklin D Roosevelt's first year--"The Defining Moment" -- and I felt the exact same frustration when reading that book as well.

Alter also displays a Broderite Washington "bubble" mentality of his own sometimes. He tends to be patronizing and even dismissive of the views and ideas of groups outside of Washington.

Someone who pays casual interest in politics or who has gotten most of their information about Obama's first year from cable news might find this book more revealing. For me, it verified more conclusions I had reached on my own rather than revealing new information. For those who feel confused, given the cacophony of delusional nonsense from Fox News and the right wing, this will provide a "grounding" that can be used to make an honest assessment of the Obama's administration's successes and failures.

Once again, I must question Amazon's policy of approving just about anything written posing as a review - when it's obvious many "reviewers" haven't read the book in question.

Jonathan Alter's The Promise covers 18 months in Barack Obama's life, from the late weeks of the 2008 campaign until the passage of the health care reform bill in March, 2010.

The fact that Alter is known as a writer with a liberal slant has been pointed out elsewhere. Within that paradigm however, he maintains a relatively even keel. It's highly doubtful that someone from, say, Fox News would have gotten the kind of inside access needed to write this book. (Rightly so, as it would probably have been a hatchet job published by Regnery.) Alter does not hide his generally positive opinions with regard to the policies of the Obama administration. But the portrait that emerges of Obama himself is balanced and not always flattering. The President comes across as highly intelligent, supremely rational, and almost Zen-like at times. He also emerges as an emotionally disconnected figure, who frequently views others, including members of his staff and particularly his more liberal supporters, with barely disguised contempt. He's the smartest person in the room and he knows it, but he needs staffers to do his bidding. At the same time, his ego is modest enough that he's willing to defer to those with specialized knowledge - unlike George W. Bush, who famously fired several advisers who warned him of an Iraq quagmire. Obama also needs a "tough-guy" for the hard bargaining which he finds distasteful, and it's apparent that Rahm Emanuel suits Obama's purposes there. The rare time Obama makes a direct confrontation with subordinates is in stifling Pentagon complaints about his plans for Afghanistan, which Alter describes as the worst dressing down of military brass by a Commander in Chief since Truman fired MacArthur in 1951. In sum, Alter presents Barack Obama as a complex man, which is undoubtedly what he is.

Alter reveals some interesting tidbits. For example, President Obama has been roundly criticized for his use of a teleprompter (the negative comments are absurd on their face, as Obama is a better off-the-cuff spreaker than three of the last four Presidents) - Alter states it's because Obama is farsighted and tends to squint when reading off of index cards.

George W. Bush comes off surprisingly well here, keeping staff in line and ensuring a smooth transition of powers, whatever their personal feelings about Obama. Well before the election, Alter states, Bush knew Obama would win, and was impressed enough with Obama's response to the financial meltdown that he virtually played dead in the ensuing weeks. The limousine ride to the Capitol Inauguration morning was surprisingly cordial (unlike that with Hoover and FDR), with Bush complaining how he'd been pestered by Dick and Lynne Cheney to pardon Scooter Libby (he refused).

There are some minor mistakes in this book, which I hope will be corrected in subsequent printings: The President's famous desk is made from timbers of HMS Resolute, not USS Resolute; President Reagan fired the air-traffic controllers in 1981, not 1983; Three-Dimensional Chess is not a fictional game from Star Trek, but an actual game developed in the late-19th Century, and was shown in Star Trek to demonstrate Mr. Spock's formidable intellect.

For those who've seen his appearances on MSNBC, Alter writes the way he talks: clear and direct. He frequently uses the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) method for outlining the events covered in the book.

With vividly descriptive language, Jonathan Alter uses his access to key sources inside the White House to paint a picture of life inside the Obama administration. The book's organization of chapters by topic rather than a straight linear chronology allows the reader to understand the complexities of the President's handling of each major issue over the course of 2009. Through the story-telling of each political issue, Alter weaves together the first year of Obama's Presidency in thorough detail. This is an excellent book to read not only for people that share the President's political views but also his detractors that dissent in their ideology but not their personal opinion of the President. (In other words, for conservatives not named "Glenn Beck".)

Newsweek had excellent inside coverage of the campaigns (they were allowed access during the campaign, but not allowed to report until after)

This book is exactly in that vein.

It's anecdote after anecdote, chock full of interesting details about what went on from during the election until Health Care Reform passed. So it's more like one and a half years of time.

I won't provide spoilers, but this book provides fly-on-the-wall coverage of inside meetings, events, and decision making thinking. It explains who the people are, what their affiliations and relationships were and are, what the thinking behind the decisions were, and the effect of those decisions. It takes a COMPLEX subject and makes it breezy and easy to read. And it definitely displays Obama's style of leadership and concrete actions in terms of his decision making. You clearly feel as if you are there while reading of these events.

I disagree with an other commenter that the book doesn't show some of Obama's misjudgments. They are there. If there aren't enough of them, what can one say? You could read books about Lincoln looking for character flaws. Good luck with that. Some people are just that good, and Obama appears to be one of them so far.

Alter clearly says that only time will tell if Obama becomes a great President or a failure. Or whether these events he's writing about were as accurate as he reported on. Why? Because often people don't "tell all" until they're not IN their current administration job to be fired if they speak and it's not liked. He gave a disclaimer, and can do no more that that. Alter has been very honest about the context.

That Alter likes his subject should be no surprise. A writer either likes their subject or has an axe to grind. The best books are from those who are favorable to the subject, but willing to be honest about them. Alter is honest. He doesn't hide things. If, as another commented didn't like, Alter ascribes blame wrongfully, at least YOU can read what the mistakes WERE and lay blame where YOU see fit. You don't have to agree with Alters opinions, but at least he lays the facts as he's learned them. And Alter goes so far as to double check and cross check his sources info, and will make note of discrepancies. That is about as good a history writing as can be had. Bravo, Alter!

Great breezy read that keeps you excited about the next meeting. How on EARTH can a writer get you excited when reading about a meeting?!? Alter does. And Obama must have some charisma at meetings to make it something to write about.

Journalist Jonathan Alter sets out in the "The Promise" to detail the first year of the Obama administration coming on the heels of the historic 2008 election. What he discovers is an administration mugged by the reality of governing in Washington, trying to enact some of its campaign promises in the teeth of Republican obstruction and economic catastrophe. Alter is generally sympathetic towards Obama, though he does not hold back from criticism. He makes a fairly persuasive case that Obama made a mistake in pushing health care reform - and according to Alter it was almost single handedly Obama's decision - before doing more to right the economic situation in the US.

This is an interesting journalistic look at Washington in 2009. It is full of interesting detail one would expect from a Washington insider, but it also gives the outsider a view of all the moving pieces that make governing in the United States so difficult today.