Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #275627 in Books
• Brand: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Published on: 2010-05-18
• Released on: 2010-05-18
• Format: Deckle Edge
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 480 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Author and Newsweek editor Alter (The Defining Moment: FDR'S Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope) chronicles Obama's first year (plus) as U.S. President, from pre-inauguration planning through the passage of health care reform in March, 2010, in this engaging, fast-moving contemporary history. Exploring Obama's "temperament, his approach to decision making, and his analysis of his ambitious first year," as well as the overarching questions of "What happened?" and "How well did he do?", Alter will remind readers why they voted as they did, and why Obama was ultimately victorious. Tasked with "the worst set of problems of any incoming president since Roosevelt in 1933," Obama served up a range of big-ticket solutions that included "the huge and underappreciated stimulus package, the auto bailouts, bank rescue and regulation... sending sixty-one thousand more troops to Afghanistan, and a health care bill," each of which Alter addresses in depth. Alter finds that, despite the denial of right-wingers, Obama performed admirably in the first year, with progress on 50 percent of his campaign promises (and completion of 18 percent). Alter's prose is swift and subtly inspiring; the "Yes, we can!" motto rarely appears but provides an undercurrent for his record of accomplishment. Readers interested in political process and the reality of progressive politics will enjoy this well-considered take on the current administration, a "second draft" of history from a dedicated journalist who wisely anticipates "dozens more versions to come."

From Bookmarks Magazine
Drawing on insider access and more than 200 interviews with key players, Washington veteran Jonathan Alter examines the nascent Obama presidency with a journalist's eye for the telling detail and a historian's perspective. Despite the transparency that the office of president demands (for the most part), Obama remains enigmatic--ebullient, confident, and optimistic; aloof, demanding, and maybe a bit out of touch. Alter, whose obvious admiration for Obama never impedes his journalistic instincts (he candidly discusses Obama's missteps with Wall Street, for example), captures those contradictions well. Presidential chroniclers won't have the advantage of hindsight for some time, but "when it comes ... to the first draft of history, The Promise is more polished--and far more thoughtful--than most" (Los Angeles Times).

From Booklist
Given the gravity of the financial crisis of 2008, the worst since the Great Depression, President Obama began his administration even before he was sworn in. Alter's assessment of Obama's first year, traditionally seen as setting the tone of a presidency, begins with cleaning up the legacy of the Bush administration (propping up the financial sector and bailing out the automobile industry) but focuses on the particular challenges facing Obama (dealing with the huge expectations of liberal Democrats and the staunch opposition of conservative Republicans). The urgency of the time compelled a push to staff up quickly, and Alter chronicles the process that led to an overreliance on former Clinton appointees. Alter analyzes Obama's savvy and zenlike calm through escalating crises, from continued conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan through the truculence of some among his own party on the issue of health care reform, Obama's priority despite warnings of its political toxicity. Among the promises kept: initating an end to the military's don't ask–don't tell policy, investment in high-speed rail, and support for national school reform. Among the promises “broken” or not yet realized: immigration reform, financial regulation, and job creation. Alter, a senior editor at Newsweek, offers a fast-paced, penetrating look at the new administration and the president as he struggles to reconcile the promises espoused during the campaign and the realities of governing. --Vanessa Bush