Barack Obama's inauguration as president on January 20, 2009,
inspired the world. But the great promise of "Change We Can Believe
In" was immediately tested by the threat of another Great
Depression, a worsening war in Afghanistan, and an entrenched and
deeply partisan system of business as usual in Washington. Despite
all the coverage, the backstory of Obama's historic first year in
office has until now remained a mystery.
In "The Promise: President Obama, Year One," Jonathan Alter, one of
the country's most respected journalists and historians, uses his
unique access to the White House to produce the first inside look
at Obama's difficult debut.
What happened in 2009 inside the Oval Office? What worked and what
failed? What is the president really like on the job and off-hours,
using what his best friend called "a Rubik's Cube in his brain?"
These questions are answered here for the first time. We see how a
surprisingly cunning Obama took effective charge in Washington
several weeks before his election, made trillion-dollar decisions
on the stimulus and budget before he was inaugurated, engineered
colossally unpopular bailouts of the banking and auto sectors, and
escalated a treacherous war not long after settling into office.
"The Promise "is a fast-paced and incisive narrative of a young
risk-taking president carving his own path amid sky-high
expectations and surging joblessness. Alter reveals that it was
Obama alone--"feeling lucky"--who insisted on pushing major health
care reform over the objections of his vice president and top
advisors, including his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, who admitted
that "I begged him not to do this."
Alter takes the reader inside the room as Obama prevents a
fistfight involving a congressman, coldly reprimands the military
brass for insubordination, crashes the key meeting at the
Copenhagen Climate Change conference, and bounces back after a
disastrous Massachusetts election to redeem a promise that had
eluded presidents since FDR.
In Alter's telling, the real Obama is an authentic, demanding,
unsentimental, and sometimes overconfident leader. He adapted to
the presidency with ease and put more "points on the board" than he
is given credit for, but neglected to use his leverage over the
banks and failed to connect well with an angry public. We see the
famously calm president cursing leaks, playfully trash-talking his
advisors, and joking about even the most taboo subjects, still
intent on redeeming more of his promise as the problems mount.
This brilliant blend of journalism and history offers the freshest
reporting and most acute perspective on the biggest story of our
time. It will shape impressions of the Obama presidency and of the
man himself for years to come.
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