Book Review # 4: “A Promised Land” by Barack Obama

Disclaimer: I have been a fan of Barack Obama and pretty much everything about him — his intellect, oratory, ability to inspire everyone across the political spectrum— since his victory speech in Chicago after the Presidential election results in late 2008. My admiration has only grown over the years as I read the two books written by him. So, if you are looking for a fault-finding threadbare analysis of his recent Presidential memoir, I am afraid I am the not best suited person for that. On the contrary, I think there are multiple reasons why you’ll love reading this book...

Front cover

The first few chapters are little slow-paced, but the narrative quickly catches up once he starts writing about his meteoric rise in US politics, first in the Illinois state legislature, soon followed by US Senate and eventually the White House. An absolute delight here is the “magic beans” conversation where Michelle is skeptical about how the couple will manage their finances once Barack quits his job at University of Chicago law school to become a full-time politician. When he shares his plan to write a book and get decent money once it becomes a bestseller, Michelle’s response is blunt, pragmatic and hilarious at the same time. You need to read it yourself to believe it. He does full justice describing last few days and hours in the run-up to his memorable speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 which catapulted him from being a relatively unknown Senator to being a frontrunner for the top job in the country.

The chapters on his Presidential election campaign are insightful in more ways than one. He describes the ups (Iowa) and downs (New Hampshire) with equal ease, reminds us how demanding the campaign is - not just in terms of physical stamina and huge money required for it, but also the rather less talked about aspects of it. e.g. staying away from the family due to perennial travelling, learning to deal with personal below-the-belt attacks from opponents (Republicans as well as Democrats), at times failing to live up to the high moral standards set in terms of not stooping to their level and in the heat of the moment, actually ending up giving them (opponents) back in the same coin. For those like me who consider him as someone damn good at owning the stage with his sheer brilliance and words of wisdom, it is refreshing to know about occasions when he “stumbled, mumbled, hemmed and hawed onstage” and him struggling to give short, to-the-point, sound byte suited answers instead of his usual analytical-but-verbose and meandering replies. And far from being a darling of the media, he mentions getting more than his share of the bad press, both due to him being quoted out of context as well as his gaffes in front of large audiences.

The best parts of the book, of course, are reserved for his stint at the White House. Though he goes a little too much in detail while giving a primer on history of Russia, China and Israel-Palestine conflict, he more than makes up for it by sharing fascinating anecdotes often involving foreign leaders:

• a meeting in Russia where “Putin launched into an animated and seemingly endless monologue”
• an official visit to China where some members of the US delegation “dressed and even showered in the dark to avoid the hidden cameras”, cheekily adding the exception of one gentleman who “made a point of walking around his room naked and with the lights on — whether out of pride or in protest, wasn’t entirely clear”.
• He particularly seems to relish writing about the Copenhagen Conference 2009 where he and Hillary (the then US Secretary of State) literally gatecrashed a meeting between leaders of India, China, Brazil and South Africa, during which he had to suppress the urge to laugh when Chinese environmental minister “suddenly stood up and started speaking in Mandarin, his voice rising, his hands waving in my direction, his face reddening in agitation” with the rest of the people in the room “not quite sure what was happening”. Joy to read. Period.
• a visit to Latin America where the supposedly state-of-the-art official communication device failed to work and a personal cellphone of one of his team members had to be used instead, to convey an urgent decision to militarily intervene in Libya. Short conversation between POTUS and the decorated US General in command: “You have my authorization.”

He writes at length about the immense responsibility that comes with the job e.g. having control of “football” (the nuclear WMD button) which implies being vested with the power to blow up the whole world, being cognizant of the implication of every decision taken by him on millions of people in the US as well as around the world, feeling frustrated and helpless at times due to the difficulty of getting any legislation passed through the US Congress due to immense role of formidable lobbies, ethical dilemmas involved in taking crucial decisions once you are in office e.g.

• Closing Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba is relatively easy but what to do with the inmates there if their native countries refuse to take them back and US citizens don’t want them on their soil either?
• Whether to succumb to the public pressure and punish rapacious Wall Street top executives, especially those who shamelessly got themselves fat paychecks from the government stimulus package to revive the economy, despite being responsible for causing the 2008 financial mess in the first place? What about the resulting risk to livelihood of millions as part of the collateral damage? Or not to throw the baby out with the bathwater, thereby letting the culprits go scot-free, focusing instead on the importance of keeping the overall financial system alive and restoring trust, going forward?
• In Arab Spring of 2010–11, whether to take an ethical stand and support those largely peaceful protestors on the streets demanding political freedom from oppressive regimes? Or to keep siding with the shady dictators who — all said and done — have been US allies for decades? What if the region is not yet ready for democracy, and the vacuum created by regime-change is subsequently filled by governments duly elected but even worse than what we currently have?

He does not shy away from making politically incorrect yet factually correct statements either, whether it is on the past dubious role of CIA in supporting brutal dictatorships across the world, harmful impact of incidents like Abu Ghraib and Gitmo on the US being perceived as an arrogant hypocritical hegemon rather than a bulwark supporting liberal democracy and human rights, and even the turf battles between Pentagon and his administration. Watch out for the few paragraphs on his Oval House meeting with the then Defense Secretary and a 4-star General. With Obama asserting his authority as the POTUS in command, I literally felt as if I was there in the room and how palpable the tension in the air must have been at that time. Superb piece of writing.

Regarding his views on other political leaders, in the US as well as those abroad, he is as candid as I guess any former but living President can be. He hardly minces words on untrustworthiness of Pakistan as an ally in the war against terror, and goes on to refer to Donald Trump’s barrage of increasingly bizarre conspiracy theories (on Obama not born in the US) as “algae in a stagnant pond”. For those of us in India, it’s difficult to argue with his objective and reasonable assessment — whether on Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi or the BJP. The words he chooses to write about his former bitter opponents turned colleagues (Hilary Clinton, Joe Biden and even those associated with Republican Party like John McCain and Robert Gates) are a masterclass in the art of maintaining healthy respect for each other despite strong disagreements on challenges facing the country. On multiple occasions in the book, he gives due credit to brilliant speech writers in his team, a simple acknowledgement — refreshingly honest though and certainly something so rare to find in increasingly alpha-male, demagogue-driven illiberal governments across the world.

These are only some of the interesting bits in the book. In addition to many more of those, it also has ample dosage of witty one-liners Obama is so good at. The final chapter is about the months of planning that went into the operation to kill Osama bin Laden, a befitting climax for this book.

And last but not the least, I heard the audio book version which is narrated by the author himself. This memoir is yet another reminder — assuming one is still needed — about the wonderful world of audio books, especially those read by the author himself/herself. Try it once and there is a good chance you’ll be glued to the experience. Be that as it may, it is a fantastic book, regardless of the format. A rather long one, but totally worth it. Looking forward to Part 2 of the memoirs..

Happy reading! :)