Renegade: The Making of a President
by Richard Wolffe
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Book Summary Information
Author: Richard WolffeEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-06-02
ISBN: 0307463125
Number of pages: 368
Publisher: Crown
Book Reviews of Renegade: The Making of a President
Book Review: Important and Engrossing
Summary: 5 Stars
I found myself a few weeks ago neglecting other parts of my life (including my busy law practice and cluttered apartment, my sometime writing of travel articles and short stories and my necessary preparation for a birthday escape to France beginning in less than three weeks ). I also found myself walking and eating while reading only one book (instead of rotating among the several, both fiction and nonfiction, that I usually carry about). Yes, I found it that difficult to put down Richard Wolffe's new book, "Renegade- the Making Of A President". I finally finished it one morning during a coffee break at Starbucks.
Wolffe is the Teddy White of the Obama campaign - the writer given sufficient access to be able to write today's version of a "making of the president". I found that Wolffe covered the man and the experience and the historical significance in a compelling manner that avoided the fawning that such closeness might have engendered - reading the book, one sees our new President in all of his complexity. At the same time, he pulled us into the inner workings of the election process (just being in Iowa at caucous time is worth the read) and the relationships of Obama with those around him. I also loved reading about some of the really fun details I had not known (like Biden banging on McCain's door to get his attention after McCain refused his calls).
Obama is in these pages, warts and all - a truly interesting and exciting read both for those of us who love him, and those
The Obama that I saw in this book is who I believe to be the real Obama - neither a God nor a Devil, but exactly the man I first discovered when I read "Dreams From My Father" several years ago and then, much later, unearthed more of when I read "The Audacity of Hope"; the man who I have been trying to explain to friends and acquaintances on both the right and the left - both to those who only see a "tax and spend" liberal, as well as to those who are disappointed that the candidate that they saw as the coming of a pure left wing ideologue is not using his political capital to make changes fast enough.
I don't think anyone could read this book and not discover that Barack Obama is very complex and very human; an intellectually gifted thinking man; a disciplined man who is also caring and moral but also sometimes angry and distant; an educated man who prides himself on his knowledge but who always remains curious, is untethered to the arrogance of constant certainty and who surrounds himself by those who will without fear offer him opposing opinions; a man who respects and is committed to trying to understand those who don't think exactly the way that he does and who will not demonize them; a man who is committed to making a difference and who has his eye on the progressive values I believe in and wants to make this a better world for those at all levels but at the same time a pragmatist who knows that things sometimes need be done in realistic increments and who while honestly wanting to change the political landscape can work with or in the flawed system to the extent needed; a caring but not always perfect husband and father who was raised sometimes by an eccentric but loving mother who dragged him around the world, and then by his grandparents, and was forged in part by the lack of a father and the mixed blessing of finding out more about who that father was.
.
These are the Obama qualities that caused me during the election cycle to purchase extra paperback copies of "The Audacity of Hope" so that whenever someone who I thought actually had a brain took a narrow view of who Obama was, or was tempted to listen to the noise on the internet, I could ask him or her:"If I gave you a book, would you promise to read it?" and hand out a copy.
In the Wolffe book you see so much - Obama and those around him in depth, plus (through the eyes of a candidate ) the inner workings of the long and complicated primary and election process.
An important and engrossing book to read.
Looking for love this summer? Find it now on AOL Personals.
Summary of Renegade: The Making of a President
Before the White House and Air Force One, before the TV ads and the enormous rallies, there was the real Barack Obama: a man wrestling with the momentous decision to run for the presidency, feeling torn about leaving behind a young family, and figuring out how to win the biggest prize in politics.This book is the previously untold and epic story of how a political newcomer with no money and an alien name grew into the world?s most powerful leader. But it is also a uniquely intimate portrait of the person behind the iconic posters and the Secret Service code name Renegade.
Drawing on a dozen unplugged interviews with the candidate and president, as well as twenty-one months covering his campaign as it traveled from coast to coast, Richard Wolffe answers the simple yet enduring question about Barack Obama: Who is he?
Based on Wolffe?s unprecedented access to Obama, Renegade reveals the making of a president, both on the campaign trail and before he ran for high office. It explains how the politician who emerged in an extraordinary election learned the personal and political skills to succeed during his youth and early career. With cool self-discipline, calculated risk taking, and simple storytelling, Obama developed the strategies he would need to survive the onslaught of the Clintons and John McCain, and build a multimillion-dollar machine to win a historic contest.
In Renegade, Richard Wolffe shares with us his front-row seat at Obama?s announcement to run for president on a frigid day in Springfield, and his victory speech on a warm night in Chicago. We fly on the candidate?s plane and ride in his bus on an odyssey across a country in crisis; stand next to him at a bar on the night he secures the nomination; and are backstage as he delivers his convention speech to a stadium crowd and a transfixed national audience. From a teacher?s office in Iowa to the Oval Office in Washington, we see and hear Barack Obama with an immediacy and honesty never witnessed before.
Renegade provides not only an account of Obama?s triumphs, but also examines his many personal and political trials. We see Obama wrestling with race and politics, as well as his former pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright. We see him struggling with life as a presidential candidate, a campaign that falters for most of its first year, and his reaction to a surprise defeat in the New Hampshire primary. And we see him relying on his personal experience, as well as meticulous polling, to pass the presidential test in foreign and economic affairs.
Renegade is an essential guide to understanding President Barack Obama and his trusted inner circle of aides and friends. It is also a riveting and enlightening first draft of history and political psychology.
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