Renegade: The Making of a President
by Richard Wolffe
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Book Reviews of Renegade: The Making of a President
Book Review: For Campaign Junkies Who Want More
Summary: 4 Stars
The 2008 Presidential Campaign was an exciting experience for those who became obsessed with Obama, Clinton and even Sarah Palin. Using every available resource, human and electronic, Obama and company (Axelrod and Plouffe to name two) crafted a brilliant campaign. Who would have thought Obama could have been elected? In its infant stages, even Obama did not believe he could really go all the way.
I watched MSNBC every day and Richard Wolffe provided the viewing audience his analysis. I believed he was a bit more than adequate and rather dull. This book gives him a better platform to convey the raw emotion of the campaign and inner workings of Obama's brilliant, dedicated managers. There are jaw-dropping incidents and I was not really surprised to discover Obama's irritability and ego crash into each other. There are many small but significant nuances present in this journey that the regular media missed during the campaign. I applaud Wolffe's reliance on fact and omits innuendo for good reason.
I would have given this book five stars but it was edited poorly or too quickly. It jumped around too much. The actual campaign had momentum and genius. Although Wolffe captured the essence of Obama and his rise from a man who could not afford to rent a car at the Los Angeles convention to become the most powerful man in the world, the book would have been more effective in chronological order. Wolffe enticed me by opening the book at election night, but even the events of that historical day were told erratically.
Regardless, Wolffe loaded the book with great facts and although I thought I knew almost everything about this campaign, I was taken aback with some startling information. I loved the book and respected Wolffe's careful descriptions and backgrounds of all the players.
Book Review: Not the book I expected, much better
Summary: 5 Stars
Renegade takes neither a positive or negative view the 44th President of the United States. During what turned out to be the longest most expensive presidential campaign in American history, there were so many inside details that seemed to be missed. When did Barack Obama decide he wanted to run for president? What were the internal discussions like among his family and advisors? What was the thinking that inspired such skillful political maneuvering around race and Jeremiah Wright, the whisper campaign that he was secretly Muslim, open accusations that he "palled around with terrorist", or even questions about his place of birth and his legality as a candidate. There are so many twists and turns in the his rise to power that the drama almost writes itself, but Wolffe is not a lazy writer, clearly he took time to go deeper into the candidates life and conduct intimate interviews with Barack, Michelle, and many of his closest advisors to get a clear idea of who this man is by examining his most difficult undertaking.
If you followed the campaign closely and think you know all there is to know about his campaign, pick up this book. There are plenty of funny and insightful details that were overlooked by the 24/7 coverage. That this book examines in a way regular news media didn't have the inclination to explore. This book is for an audience that cares about politics. This books is for people who want a better understanding of who the President is want a window into his thinking on issues that go beyond sound bites and digs deep into his political philosophy. It's a book that will remind you of things you thought you'd forgotten about and shows you new details you never knew you missed. Quite frankly it's one of the best books about modern politics I've read.
Book Review: Good for what it is, but be sure you know what it isn't
Summary: 3 Stars
I'm sure every author of a campaign book since 1960 has fancied themselves the heir to Ted White's groundbreaking "Making of the President," a series of four books about each presidential election from 1960 to 1972. But Wolffe has made the mistake of committing to paper that he is White's heir.
Wolffe's readable book on the 2008 election covers the major events of the campaign and demonstrates the great access Wolffe had to the winning candidate and his inner circle. But it is not up to White's standard. White would combine minute details of political power players and convention rules with discussions of broad demographic, social, and political trends. Wolffe barely mentions the complex delegate selection process that was responsible for Obama emerging from the primaries victorious. That is just one example where Wolffe misses an opportunity to be the next White.
Part of the problem may actually be Wolffe's access. History is written by the winners, but Wolffe does not appear to have spoken to the McCain or Clinton campaigns, Obama's main adversaries during 2008. As a result, the book is written entirely from the perspective of the Obama team. That means it lacks the perspective that made White's work so informative. Wolffe offers a series of interesting, but ultimately unsatisfying, quotes from the Obama camp about the events they went through.
All this is not to be critical of what Wolffe has done. His narrative of the 2008 campaign, partly told through narrative themes such as failure and foreign policy, is a good review of the campaign. But it is not Ted White and it should not claim to be.
Book Review: Badly organized, few new insights -- not worth reading
Summary: 2 Stars
I had high hopes for this book. I still recall the thrill of reading Theodore White's Making of the President 1960. The 1960 election occurred during my first year in college, and White did a masterful job of telling the inside story. Wolffe's book was intended to emulate White's, but it falls far short. I have two major complaints:
First, as others have noted, the narrative is disorganized and difficult to follow. Though a straight chronology is not the only way to tell a story, Wolffe's narrative jumps forward and backward in time without any warning and without any discernible purpose. A well-defined thematic organization might have worked, but the chapter headings are too cryptic to establish distinct themes, and Wolffe does not bother to introduce new themes in a reader-friendly way. Because of this narrative whiplash, reading the book is a chore.
Second, and more important from my point of view, Wolffe offers little in the way of new information or insight. For anyone who followed the election closely on a day-to-day basis, this book reads like little more than a compressed and choppy synopsis of what appeared in the media and on the web while the campaigns were unfolding. I could not escape the sense while slogging through it that I was wasting my time. I finally ran out of patience with the book 2/3 of the way through.
At the risk of further disillusionment, I plan to try next the new book by Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson, two journalists for whom I have the highest regard. I'm betting that they have come far closer than Wolffe did to writing an insightful narrative about this extraordinary election.
Book Review: Unexpected Twist at the End
Summary: 3 Stars
Normally, I wouldn't confess my political leanings in a review but it seems fair in this context. I was/am an unlikely Obama supporter -- one of those independents/left wing Republicans described in this book. After intensively studying the issues for a couple of hours I decided to vote for Obama early on because I looked around and noted that What We Were Doing Wasn't Working -- a phrase that I found effectively ended most political arguments.
The good news is that my parents are still speaking to me, although they are careful not to let it get out to their friends.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book until the end when I felt it got, for want of a better term, "mushy". Obama was portrayed exactly as I perceived him -- decisive, ethical, brilliant and most of all steady. In the final chapters, all of the sudden it felt like the author decided to give the President wiggle room on his positions under the heading of "pragmatism." I have had numerous discussions over the last year with relatives -- mostly older-- who characterize the President as a Marxist or a socialist, to which I have always replied "Oh, I hope you are wrong."
I had the same reaction at the end of this book -- I so hope Mr. Wolffe's characterization of President Obama as a slightly different man than the candidate is just wrong. Too many of us have invested too much hope in the President's commitment to change the tone of politics -- dashing those hopes would arguably be as destructive to this country as the absurdity of Iraq.
Overall, a well written book that deserves to be read very carefully.