In this first volume of his two-volume memoir, he gives a rendering of his first term in office; the challenges his administration faced and the victories they recorded.
Before now, I never would have thought that Michelle had not been fully on board with his political ambition. For one who appeared to have been born to be FLOTUS, and looked the part so much, I was surprised to find that out. When he sits with her to discuss his decision to run for president, she doesn’t take it well.
“This is your thing,” she says. “I’ve supported you the whole time, because I believe in you, even though I hate politics. I hate the way it exposes our family.”
He tries to patronize her by saying he wouldn’t run if she didn’t think they should. Well, Michelle sticks to her guns. “If that’s really true, then the answer is no,” she said. “I don’t want you to run for president, at least not now.” This was coming after eight years in the Illinois Senate, a failed run for Congress and just less than two years as senator in Washington.
Obama gives us a hint to how much of a toll public service could take on the family; how much less of a normal childhood Sasha and Malia might have. Here Michelle would seek advice from both Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush on how to insulate the girls from the press and “grilled the Secret Service on ways to avoid having the girls’ security detail disrupt playdates and soccer games.”
One other thing struck me through this book: the weight of decision-making leaders carry. As President and Commander-in-Chief - especially of the United States - one makes the final call on all issues. These are issues with far-reaching impacts, both on the economy, regarding the lives of American citizens and issues of foreign policy that could enhance or destabilize world peace – all of which, depending on how handled, would also have negative impact on his political fortunes.
For all the times he made such decisions – the difficult calls with handling the 2008 financial crisis, sending more young people to the war in Afghanistan, when he gave assent for the raid on Libya, the decision to send US SEALs into Pakistan to capture Bin Laden - I tried to picture myself in his shoes. What would I have done differently?
It is quite unsettling to see the sort of struggle the Obama Administration had to go through with the republicans just to get bills passed. It evokes a sort of questioning of the motives of republican congressional leaders. It appears that instead of providing the necessary bi-partisan support to get legislations through the house, they would rather watch the US economy burn – just as long as it did so under Obama’s watch. A member of congress would tell him “These Republicans aren’t interested in cooperating with you, Mr. President. They’re looking to break you.”
I personally adore the relationship he had with his staffers. He gives them necessary credit and acknowledges that a bulk of the work could not have been done without them. For Obama, “what really mattered in government came down to the daily, unheralded acts of people who weren’t seeking attention but simply knew what they were doing and did it with pride.”
A Promised Land lets us in also on what it means to be president and how it affects the opinions you can have and express. Obama would learn another difficult lesson about the presidency: “that my heart was now chained to strategic considerations and tactical analysis, my convictions subject to counterintuitive arguments; that in the most powerful office on earth, I had less freedom to say what I meant and act on what I felt than I’d had as a senator—or as an ordinary citizen…”
I put this in contrast to Donald Trump, who as President, would almost set up his Oval Office entirely on Twitter.
Obama only speaks of Trump briefly towards the end of the book. Trump had built a symbiotic relationship with the media. He was in the business of spreading conspiracy theories, especially about Obama’s birth. “He understood instinctively what moved the conservative base most, and he offered it up in an unadulterated form.”
The media never really cared for the truth; Trump was good business for them. Although, I find it hilarious that Trump would go on to remain in a never-ending fisticuff with the same media all through his short-lived presidency.
For someone who would go on to dismantle much of the legacy Obama built, I think Obama would have more to say about Trump in the next volume.
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