Book #173: A Promised Land by Barack Obama

 

A Promised Land

Barack Obama

 Released: November 17th, 2020

My 39th book for 2026 was Barack Obama’s A Promised Land.  

This is the second Presidential Memoir I have read following Jimmy Carter's Keeping Faith 2 years ago.  I have been meaning to read this one for some time as I wanted to see how the presidency affected his ideas, methods, and beliefs.  I just finished Donald Trump's Surviving At The Top, and since I've been doing a good job of balancing books regardless of political persuasion, I figured I would look into the two most influential figures on each side.

Ever since I watched Designated Survivor, I realized I could never be President of the United States.  Not because I have some inability, but because the stress and sheer cut-throat nature of American politics in the modern day is simply demeaning to all involved.  Since then, I have wanted to read books by various presidents to see what it was like to sit in that chair making some of the most difficult decisions ever.  I have read Carter, Trump, and Obama.  I still have Biden (when he releases his), W. Bush, Clinton, H.W. Bush, Reagan, Ford, Nixon, Johnson, Eisenhower and more.

Barack Obama was a virtual unknown who rose through the ranks of government in Illinois.  He took the 2008 Democratic Nomination en route to winning the National Election and being elected as the first Black president in our nation's history.  This book takes us through his early days, into his junior Senator days in Illinois, to the 2008 Election and through the first 2 years of his presidency.

I didn't realize this until about 3/4th's of the way in, this is the first volume in a series of Presidential Memoirs by President Obama.  He only covered the first 2 years, and while it ends on a strong note, I crave more.  

Obama speaks in a very captivating way.  He has a way with words and articulates points very clearly.  I personally never voted for Obama but have come to respect him on various things.  I truly see what made him presidential material.

It's hard to conceptualize but in his first two years, Obama faced a housing market crash, market destabilization, nominating judges, pursuing Obamacare, a cigarette addiction, death of collogues, issues dealing with leaders from other nations, Pirate hostage situations, 2 wars, being a parent and a husband, the H1N1 virus, the Beer Summit, the Deepwater Horizon spill, Repealing "Don't Ask Don't Tell", closing Guantanamo, brokering peace in the Middle East, having the presence of a rising political rival in Donald Trump, questions about his citizenship, and the killing of Osama Bin Laden.

That's an intense plate.  He got through it and 6 more years, which I'll be excited to read about as well in the next volume.

I won't go through all the issues, but Obama had a good first Memoir.  He was the first modern era president who had to face challenges and use new technologies that were never available in the past.  For that, he is credited with innovating a new brand of politics.  

I was correct in how I felt Obama would feel politically after becoming president.  A lot of things he campaigned for were quickly determined to be too difficult once he got in.  Sometimes you never see the difficulty of something until you're in the driver's seat and facing the struggles yourself.  Obama campaigned hard against the policies of President George W. Bush, but found out that Bush did not have a lot of options for rectifying the issues.

An example of this was Afghanistan.  The Democratic Party wanted to get out of the country, and Obama realized stabilization was needed in order to carry out an effective withdrawal, requiring troop increases.  

The other good thing is that it didn't take me 6 months to read like it did Carter's.  And I know reading a 700+ page book this late in the year was bound to spell trouble, but I managed it in 2 weeks.  I have a few more long ones, but they should be easier reads.

Here is what I learned:

—————

• To Michelle — my love and life’s partner and Malia and Sasha — whose dazzling light makes everything brighter.

• Obama had so much to say that his memoirs will be released in 2 volumes.

• Obama hates footnotes and endnotes.

• “More than anyone, this book is for those young people—an invitation to once again remake the world, and to bring about, through hard work, determina-tion, and a big dose of imagination, an America that finally aligns with all that is best in us.”

• Obama’s nickname is Barry.

• Obama loved the West Colonnade the best out of the entire White House.

• Obama is a slower walker, or a Hawaiian walker.

• Obama would start his day in the Colonnade and then hit the Oval Office for a cup of hot tea and his schedule.

• Obama doesn’t come from a political family.

• According to his grandma Toot, keeping up with the news is part of being a well-informed citizen.

• The Honolulu Advertiser is a local paper in Hawaii.

• His grandfather’s favorite watering hole was torn down to renovate the beachside.  His grandfather never forgave the Hawaiian leaders.

• Obama attended Punahou, Hawaii’s top prep school.

• His grandfather drove a Ford Granada.

• He considers his time at Occidental College the start of his political awakening.

• He was inspired by civil rights leaders such as John Lewis, Bob Moses, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Diane Nash.

• He transferred to Columbia University his last 3 years.

• He graduated in 1983 with big ideas but nowhere to go.

• “You can spend a lifetime working outside institutions.  But you might get more done trying to change those institutions from the inside.”

• He next attended Harvard Law School.

• Michelle Obama’s full maiden name was Michelle Lavaughn Robinson.

• Barack and Michelle were married October 3rd, 1992 at the Trinity United Church of Christ.

• They honeymooned on the California coast.

• In 1995, congressmen Mel Reynolds was indicted on the charge of having sex with a a sixteen year old campaign volunteer.

• Michelle gave up her Saturday mornings up to go door knocking with Barry for signatures.

• “Most folks still have no idea who you are.  Shit, they don’t know who she is either but — no offense, now — “Alice Palmer” is a hell of a lot better ballot name than “Barack Obama”.

• There is a Japanese Garden behind the East-West Center at the University of Hawaii.

• Unless you live at the southern tip of Chicago, the quickest route to Springfield is via I-55.

• Junior members of the Illinois Senate were called “mushrooms” because “you’re fed shit and kept in the dark”.

• Obama used to write a weekly column for the Hyde Park Herald.

• Michelle found out she was pregnant in Fall of 1997.

• Malia was born July 4th, 1997.

• The 2000 Democratic National Convention was held in Los Angeles.

• When he got there, his credit card was over the limit, and his pass didn’t allow entry to the convention floor.

• Obama flew home upset.  He was almost 49, broke, coming off a humiliating defeat and with his marriage strained.

• Sasha was born June 10th, 2001.

• Dan Shomon was his chief senate aide.

• They shared a love of smoking in the car.

• “As long as the residents of my Chicago district and districts downstate remained strangers to one another, I realized, our politics would never truly change.”

• David Axlerod was a media consultant who’d previously been a journalist.

• With his state senate run, Obama made a compromise: I win, or walk away from politics for good.

• He reasoned that he would be the only African American in the Senate and could write another book with a higher national profile.

• Michelle was not impressed by his decision.

• "In other words, you've got some magic beans in your pocket. That's what you're telling me. You have some magic beans, and you're going to plant them, and overnight a huge beanstalk is going to grow high into the sky, and you'll climb up the beanstalk, kill the giant who lives in the clouds, and then bring home a goose that lays golden eggs. Is that it?"

• "This is it, Barack.  One last time. But don't expect me to do any campaigning. In fact, you shouldn't even count on my vote."

• "Here's the thing, most people, wherever they’re from, whatever they look like, are looking for the same thing. They're not trying to get filthy rich. They don't expect someone else to do what they can do for themselves.  But they do expect that if they're willing to work, they should be able to find a job that supports a family. They expect that they shouldn't go bankrupt just because they get sick. They expect that their kids should be able to get a good education, one that prepares them for this new economy, and they should be able to afford college if they've put in the effort. They want to be safe, from criminals or terrorists. And they figure that after a lifetime of work, they should be able to retire with dignity and respect.  That's about it. It's not a lot. And although they don't expect government to solve all their problems, they do know, deep in their bones, that with just a slight change in priorities government could help."

• Jack Ryan was an opponent in the Illinois senate race who once forced his wife to have sex in front of strangers.

• Obama gave the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston.

• Obama first heard “The audacity of Hope” during a sermon from his pastor Jeremiah Wright.

• He has only ever seen his 2004 Keynote address once, and it was by himself long after the election.

• “But there comes a point in the speech where I find my cadence. The crowd quiets rather than roars. It's the kind of moment I'd come to recognize in subsequent years, on certain magic nights. There's a physical feeling, a current of emotion that passes back and forth between you and the crowd, as if your lives and theirs are suddenly spliced together, like a movie reel, projecting backward and forward in time, and your voice creeps right up to the edge of cracking, because for an instant, you feel them deeply; you can see them whole. You've tapped into some collective spirit, a thing we all know and wish for—a sense of connection that overrides our differences and replaces them with a giant swell of possibility-and like all things that matter most, you know the moment is fleeting and that soon the spell will be broken.”

• During an 18-month stretch in the 2004 campaign, Obama only took 7 days off.

• Following his keynote address, his reissued book went to the top of the bestseller list.

• Michelle was impressed that Barry had been able to pull of a successful campaign and secure a new book deal.

• When she asked how he did it, Barry responded “Magic beans baby, magic beans.”

• The day he was sworn in, a reporter asked about him running for president, and where he considers his place in history.  Obama had a great response.

• “I had just arrived in Washington, was ranked ninety-ninth in seniority, had yet to cast a vote, and didn't know where the restrooms were in the Capitol.”

• “To be a workhorse, not a show horse was my goal.”

• Senator Harry Reid was born dirt poor in the small town of Searchlight, NV.

• Reid gave Obama some inspirational words based on his youth.

• "You know, Barack, I boxed when I was a kid.  And gosh, I wasn't a great athlete. I wasn't big and strong. But I had two things going for me. I could take a punch.  And I didn't give up."

• Obama built a strong friendship with Republicans Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.

• Obama was 43 when he started on the national scene.

• Obama would read Harry Potter to his kids.

• Michelle is a perennial early-riser.

• Fame was an adjustment for the Obama family.

• Mike Signator was Obama’s part-time driver.

• Sam Kass was his personal chef.

• Obama’s first foreign trip was to Russia, Ukraine, and Azerbaijan.

• Obama is not a fan of Borscht or fish gelatin.

• Obama did not feel racism contributed to the Hurricane Katrina response.

• The War in Iraq struggled because the disbanding of the Iraqi army allowed the Shiite majority to remove large numbers of Sunni Muslims from government positions.

• This led to suicide bombings, random attacks, and other challenges.

• “The truth is, I've never been a big believer in destiny. I worry that it encourages resignation in the down-and-out and complacency among the powerful. I suspect that God's plan, whatever it is, works on a scale too large to admit our mortal tribulations; that in a single lifetime, accidents and happenstance determine more than we care to admit; and that the best we can do is to try to align ourselves with what we feel is right and construct some meaning out of our confusion, and with grace and nerve play at each moment the hand that we're dealt.”

• “The power to inspire is rare. Moments like this are rare. You think you may not be ready, that you'll do it at a more convenient time. But you don't choose the time. The time chooses you. Either you seize what may turn out to be the only chance you have, or you decide you're willing to live with the knowledge that the chance has passed you by."

• Obama and Michelle struggled over his candidacy.  She felt he was never satisfied with his role no matter what was happening.

• Barack enjoys vodka.

• Obama slowly realized he could run for president.

• “My deepest fear, it turned out, was no longer of irrelevance, or being stuck in the Senate, or even losing a presidential race.  The fear came from the realization that I could win.”

• Most humans commit 5-10 gaffes a day.

• “Looking back, I realize I was doing what most of us tend to do when we're uncertain or floundering: We reach for what feels familiar, what we think we're good at. I knew policy; I knew how to consume and process information. It took a while to figure out that my problem wasn't a lack of a ten-point plan. Rather, it was my general inability to boil issues down to their essence, to tell a story that helped explain an increasingly uncertain world to the American people and make them feel that I, as president, could help them navigate it.”

• Obama was never really impressed by John Edwards.

• Mountain Lake is a small town tucked into the southwest corner of Minnesota.

• Obama lost the support of Ben & Jerry because he would not commit to cutting the military budget.

• Hillary Clinton’s campaign said that once in Kindergarten, Obama wrote an essay that he wanted to be President.  She used this against him saying he secretly always wanted to be president and was lying.

• “The idea that anyone outside my family remembered anything I said or did almost forty years earlier was a bit far-fetched.”

• Hillary was frustrated that Obama pulled ahead of her in the 2008 campaign.

• Obama won Iowa by 8 points.

• Obama’s New Hampshire speech gave way to the “Yes We Can” movement and slogan.

• Obama has the ability to maintain composure in the middle of crisis.

• “There is not a Black America and a white America and a Latino America and an Asian America.

• A lot of democratic voters have taken the black vote for granted.

• Barry and Michelle were spotty church-goers.

• He first met Rev. Jeremiah A Wright Jr. during my organizing days.

• He felt that sometimes the pastor would put things out of context.

• The Reverend was to give the invocation at one of his stops, but a Rolling Stones article painted him in a negative light, so Obama changed plans.

• Obama admired Bill Clinton but felt he didn’t change politics in the same way Ronald Reagan did in the 1980’s.

• With a bigger budget from his war chest, a Obama could charter his own plane.

• Obama’s campaign was code name “Renegade”.

• “This is what separates even the most liberal writers from their conservative counterparts — the willingness to flag politicians on their own side.”

• Obama severed ties with Rev. Wright.

• Obama won the 2008 Democratic Nomination for president over Hillary Clinton.

• He took an overseas trip to test his ability on the international stage.

• Afghani President Hamid Karzai was exiled to France during the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

• In the 1970’s, Kabul was not so different from the capitals of other developing countries.

• Obama’s VP choice was between Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia or Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware.

• Biden had a healthy ego, and disliked being second fiddle to anyone.

• "If you pick me, I want to be able to give you my best judgment and frank advice. You'll be the president, and I'll defend whatever you decide. But I want to be the last guy in the room on every major decision.”

• The 2008 Democratic National Convention was in Denver.

• “We cannot walk alone.”

• Obama and John McCain were both briefed on the housing collapse of 2008 by President George W. Bush’s administration.

• McCain suspended his campaign and flew back to Washington DC until a TARP bill was passed.

• Obama continued his campaign with a classic ad-lib.

• “Presidents are going to have to deal with more than one thing at a time.”

• Michelle took a little to realize what was happening.

• “You’re going to win, aren’t you?”

• McCain defended Obama when a voter told him that he was afraid of Obama assuming the presidency.

• “I have to tell you, he is a decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as president of the United States.  We want to fight, and I will fight. But we will be respectful. I admire Senator Obama and his accomplishments. I will respect him. I want everyone to be respectful and let's make sure we are because that's the way politics should be conducted in America."

• As the issues of 2008 piles up, Obama joked with his staff about the benefit of winning.

• "Are we sure we want to win this thing? It's not too late to throw it.  Two hundred and thirty-two years and they wait until the country's falling apart before they turn it over to the brother!"

• Obama’s first job was scooping ice cream at Baskin-Robbin’s.

• His grandmother Toot died on the eve of the election.

• Obama added remarks to his speech that became his final. campaigning words.

• "She was one of those quiet heroes that we have all across America. They're not famous. Their names aren't in the newspapers. But each and every day they work hard. They look after their families. They sacrifice for their children and their grandchildren. They aren't seeking the limelight—all they try to do is just do the right thing.  And in this crowd, there are a lot of quiet heroes like that-mothers and fathers, grandparents, who have worked hard and sacrificed all their lives. And the satisfaction that they get is seeing that their children and maybe their grandchildren or their great-grandchildren live a better life than they did.  That's what America's about. That's what we're fighting for."

• Barack and Michelle cast their 2008 ballots at the Beulah Showsmith Elementary School in Hyde Park.

• ABC News was the first to announce that Barack Obama would become the nation’s 44th President.

• The Oval Office lights never turn off.

• After the Bush family and administration provided a smooth transition, Obama promised himself that when the time came, he would treat his successor the same way.

• Rahm Emanuel lost his middle finger as a teenager during a meat slicer accident.

• President Dwight Eisenhower occasionally felt stymied by the “military industrial complex”.

• Obama chose to keep Robert Gates over from the previous Bush administration to be bipartisan, experienced, and to keep him from being too biased.

• Obama admired the foreign policy of George H.W. Bush.

• The Obama’s spent Christmas 2008 in Hawaii.

• They started an annual talent show there.

• The Obama girls attended Sidwell Friends.

• The Washington Blair House is the president’s official guesthouse.

• They stayed in the Hay-Adams Hotel until it was ready to move in.

• Obama tends to live his life 15 minutes behind schedule.

• He sets 2 alarms every morning.

• “I would soon be vested with the authority to blow up the world.”

• “The Beast” is the oversized black limousine that transports the President.

• Obama was ashamed of protestors causing division during the transfer of power.

• “To protest a man in the final hour of his presidency seemed graceless and unnecessary.”

• Every day Obama prayed prayers of thanks for all he’d been given, for his sins to be forgiven, for his family and the American people to be kept safe from harm, and for guidance.

• Barry and Michelle attended 10 inaugural balls.

• Ted Kennedy collapsed in a seizure during the post-inaugural lunch.

• President Obama signed his first bill into law on the 9th day of his presidency.

• Aaron Burr created the filibuster in rebuke to the “motion to proceed”.

• Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, and John Boehner were know as “The Four Tops”

• Obama felt the Democrats took a perverse pride in their lack of message discipline.

• Obama felt Nancy Pelosi constantly wanted to remind the public that it was the Republicans who caused the financial crisis.

• Harry Reid didn’t expect Mitch McConnell to raise a finger to help.

• Boehner felt that his caucus would crucify him if he showed any signs of cooperation.

• McConnell acted like he did not care about what Obama had to say about various issues.

• Obama points to a Newt Gingrich-led GOP as the start of divisive politics.

• He felt the Congress of the 1980’s was much less hostile.

• Obama felt reporters are more at the liberal end of the political spectrum.

• Rush Limbaugh was quoted as saying “I hope Obama fails.”

• Back in 2009, most Republican elected officials didn’t consider it wise to be that blunt in public.

• Obama felt that Republicans were too influenced by billionaire ideologues David and Charles Koch who built a network of think tanks, advocacy organizations, media operations and political opponents.

• Obama nominated Judd Gregg (R-NH) for commerce secretary to keep his promise of a bipartisan government.

• Gregg withdrew his bid after being talked out of it by his party.

• Obama says that former First Lady Barbara Bush reportedly stepped in to “dissuade him from joining [Obama’s] administration.”

• Charlie Crist was a popular governor of Florida.

• While campaigning for support of the Recovery Act, Crist introduced Obama at a town-hall and after doing a “bro-hug”, Crist was blackballed by his party and supporters.

• Obama struggled to feel achievement by his accomplishments early on feeling strain from both his party and the other.

• “Between Republican attacks and Democratic complaints, I was reminded of the Yeats poem "The Second Coming": My supporters lacked all conviction, while my opponents were full of passionate intensity.”

• Obama would read 10 letters from citizens a day.

• He visited Nevada and recalls a conversation with a man whose home lost over half its value.

• "I remember my dad talking about the American Dream when I was a kid.  How the most important thing was to work hard. Buy a house. Raise a family. Do things right. What happened to that? When did that become just a load of...?" He trailed off, looking pained before wiping the sweat from his face and restarting his mower.

• The question was what my administration could do to help a man like that. He hadn't lost his home, but he'd lost faith in the shared enterprise of our country, its larger ideal.

• Obama was frustrated with the conservative viewpoint of things.

• “…the kind of rhetorical sleight of hand that had become a staple of conservative pundits everywhere, whatever the issue: taking language once used by the disadvantaged to highlight a societal ill and turning it on its ear. The problem is no longer discrimination against people of color, the argument goes; it's "reverse racism," with minorities “playing the race card" to get an unfair advantage. The problem isn't sexual harassment in the workplace; it's humorless "feminazis" beating men over the head with their political correctness. The problem is not bankers using the market as their personal casino, or corporations suppressing wages by busting unions and offshoring jobs. It's the lazy and shiftless, along with their liberal Washington allies, intent on mooching off the economy's real "makers and the doers."

• Obama viewed government as a social insurance contract.

• “As our society grew more complex, more and more of the government's function took the form of social insurance, with each of us chipping in through our tax dollars to protect ourselves collectively—for disaster relief if our house was destroyed in a hurricane; unemployment insurance if we lost a job; Social Security and Medicare to lessen the indignities of old age; reliable electricity and phone service for those who lived in rural areas where utility companies wouldn't otherwise make a profit; public schools and universities to make education more egalitarian.”

• He felt the GOP was force-fed a great lie through conservative media.

• “The government was taking money, jobs, college slots, and status away from hardworking, deserving people like us and handing it all to people like them-those who didn't share our values, who didn't work as hard as we did, the kind of people whose problems were of their own making.”

• Confirmation hearings have gone from a simple interview process to an opportunity to torpedo the appointee and politically embarrass the current administration.

• Obama’s first major challenge was the financial crisis.

• “Confidence, of course, is hard to convey if you don’t fully feel it.”

• A newly-elected President’s first speech before a joint session of Congress isn’t technically considers a State of the Union address.

• Bob Gates had served under 7 previous presidents before Obama.  He gave his this grim advice.

• “There’s only one thing you can count on, Mr. President.  On any given moment in any given day, somebody somewhere is screwing up.”

• For most of American history, the First Lady’s job had been defined by 4 points: Look beautiful, Care for your family, Be gracious, and Support your man.

• Obama made it a point to be at the dinner table every night at 6:30p, even if it meant returning to work after.

• Michelle planted the vegetable garden in the South Lawn.

• Obama was still smoking 5-7 cigarettes a day when he took office.

• Obama realized the presidency was far more difficult than most realize.

• “What I was quickly discovering about the presidency was that no problem that landed on my desk, foreign or domestic, had a clean, 100 percent solution.”

• He was constantly calculating potential success rates of various issues.

• “In such circumstances, chasing after the perfect solution led to paralysis. On the other hand, going with your gut too often meant letting preconceived notions or the path of least political resistance guide a decision —  with cherry-picked facts used to justify it. But with a sound process — one in which I was able to empty out my ego and really listen, following the facts and logic as best I could and considering them alongside my goals and my principles — I realized I could make tough decisions and still sleep easy at night, knowing at a minimum that no one in my position, given the same information, could have made the decision any better. A good process also meant I could allow each member of the team to feel ownership over the decision—which meant better execution and less relitigation of White House decisions through leaks to The New York Times or The Washington Post.”

• “That was another lesson the presidency was teaching me: Sometimes it didn't matter how good your process was. Sometimes you were just screwed, and the best you could do was have a stiff drink — and light up a cigarette.”

• Obama held a meeting with the CEOs of major banks to discuss viable solutions.

• Their impression was that his rhetoric was what made the public angry.

• Obama pitched the situation as more of a protective action.

• “Finally I let out something between a laugh and a snort. ‘Let me explain something, gentlemen,’ I said, careful not to raise my voice.  People don't need my prompting to be angry. They've got that covered all on their own. The fact is, we're the only ones standing between you and the pitchforks’”.

• He felt frustration at American automaker’s inability to design a car people wanted to buy.

• “I don’t understand why Detroit can’t make a damn Corolla.”

• In the auto-crisis, Ford was in the best shape, GMC was salvageable, and Chrysler (outside of its Jeep brand) was in the worst shape.

• Obama’s first car was a red five-speed 1976 Fiat.

• Obama can drive manual transmission cars.

• 9 months after the fall of the Lehman Brothers, the panic was under control.

• Obama mused over the greatest responsibility of any president.

• “Depending on your political predispositions and electoral mandate, you may have a burning desire to fix public education or restore prayer in schools, raise the minimum wage or break the power of public sector unions. But whether Republican or Democrat, the one thing every president must obsess over, the source of chronic, unrelenting tension that burrows deep inside you from the moment you're elected, is the awareness that everybody is depending on you to protect them.”

• National Security was another challenge for Obama to learn how to manage.

• “With the stakes as high as they were, I was coming to realize that leadership, particularly in the national security arena, was about more than executing well-reasoned policy.”

• “I’d put forward what I considered to be clear positions on all these issues during the campaign. But that had been from the cheap seats, before I had hundreds of thousands of troops and a sprawling national security infrastructure under my command. Any terrorist attack would now happen on my watch. Any American lives lost or compromised, at home or abroad, would weigh uniquely on my conscience. These were my wars now.”

• Obama found himself changing his view on Iraq as a clear solution seemed present.

• “As firmly as I had opposed the original decision to invade, I believed America now had both a strategic and a humanitarian interest in Iraq's stability.”

• “Unlike the war in Iraq, the Afghan campaign had always seemed to me a war of necessity.”

• Joe Biden was against sending more troops to Afghanistan partly because he felt burned from supporting the war measure and had a contentious meeting with Karzai.

• He found military leaders to be the opposite of their stereotype.

• “In fact, during my eight years as president, it was often the generals, rather than civilians, who counseled restraint when it came to the use of force.”

• G8 conferences represent a netting of the world’s 8 largest economies.

• Air Force One did not have WiFi-capabilities until Obama’s second term.

• Obama met a lot of leaders at the conference.  At the end, the achievement a historic agreement to resolve the world’s financial crisis.

• Obama was surprised to learn than NATO lacked the plans or rapid-response capabilities to come to the defense of every ally.

• “If I hoped to pass one thing on to Malia and Sasha, it was freedom from the possibility of a human-made apocalypse.”

• Obama considered former Czech Republic leader Václav Havel to be a distant role model.

• The cargo ship Maersk Alabama was under attack by Somalian Pirates.

• Captain Richard Phillips was taken captive at gunpoint.

• Obama issued a standing order to fire on the pirates if Phillips life appeared to be in danger.

• The greater Cairo metro area contains over 16 million people.

• Obama got to partake in a D-Day commutation ceremony.

• “Our history has always been the sum total of the choices made and the actions taken by each individual man and woman.  It has always been up to us.”

• Obama was the first presidential brewmaster.

• George Washington produced his own whiskey.

• The Obamas got a dog named Bo.

• Bo was a gift from Ted & Vicki Kennedy.

• Teddy helped secure passage of the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

• Teddy also worked with President Bush to get drug coverage for seniors.

• The quest for universal health care extended back to 1912 when Teddy Roosevelt ran for a third term on a progressive ticket to establish a centralized national health service.

• Obamacare was based on a method Mitt Romney used to ensure more people from Massachusetts by enforcing it like car insurance.

• More than 12,000 lost their lives to the H1N1 Virus.

• Marbury V. Madison was a 1803 Supreme Court Ruling that gave the Court final say on the U.S. Constitution.

• Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed by a vote of 68-31.

• After the Henry Louis Gates Jr. arrest, Obama called the action “stupid, which set off a fire storm that he considered all law officers stupid.

• Obama hosted the “Beer Summit” at the White House to smooth things over.

• Obama considered the “Tea Party” to be an organized effort to marry people’s honest fears about a changing America with a right-wing political agenda.

• Ted Kennedy died on August 25th, 2009.

• Obama gave a prime-time address on Obamacare.

• Obamacare passed by a margin of 7 votes.

• Obama felt passing Obamacare was a bigger moment to him than winning the presidency.

• In October 9th, 2009, Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

• He didn’t feel he deserved it so early in his presidency.

• “I told the assembled press corps that less than a year into my presidency, I didn't feel that I deserved to be in the company of those transformative figures who'd been honored in the past. In-stead, I saw the prize as a call to action, a means for the Nobel committee to give momentum to causes for which American leadership was vital: reducing the threats of nuclear weapons and climate change; shrinking economic inequality; upholding human rights; and bridging the racial, ethnic, and religious divides that so often fed conflict. I said I thought the award should be shared with others around the world who labored, often without recognition, for justice, peace, and human dignity.”

• That month was the deadliest month for the U.S. since the start of the war and he has to wrestle with the prospect of sending more troops in.

• “Whatever you do won’t be enough.  Try anyway.”

• Obama made a huge mark on his foreign policy by naming Hillary Clinton the nation’s top diplomat.

• “I made a point of showing an interest in the history, culture, and people of the places we visited.”

• There had been no high-level contact between the United States and Iran since 1980.

• Obama extended an olive branch by sending a secret letter to Ayatollah Khamenei through Iranian diplomats at the United Nations.

• “Khamenei’s answer was blunt: Iran had no interest in direct talks. He did, however, take the opportunity to suggest ways the United States could stop being an imperialist bully.”

• U.S. companies had been blocked from doing business with Iran since 1995.

• Vladimir Putin issued a blanket pardon for Boris Yeltsin.

• Putin like President George W. Bush personally.

• Putin went on a 45 minute rant to Obama about Russian-US relations.

• Sections of the Great Wall of China have been maintained since 200 B.C.

• Obama felt that progressives should pay more attention to the economics of their actions vs acts of goodwill.

• “Still, for both policy and political reasons, I felt that progressives couldn't afford to ignore economics. Those of us who believed in the government's ability to solve big problems had an obligation to pay attention to the real-world impact of our decisions and not just trust in the goodness of our intentions. If a proposed agency rule to preserve wetlands was going to lop acreage off a family farm, that agency should have to take the farmer's losses into account before moving forward.”

• In 1990, President George H.W. Bush successfully implemented a cap and trade system on sulfur dioxide.

• Obama and Hillary crashed an environmental meeting with China, Brazil, India, and South America to get a deal signed with Europe.

• "Mr. President," Nancy said to me on one call, "I tell my members that what you've managed to do in such a short time is historic. I'm just so very proud, really. But right now, the public doesn't know what you've accomplished. They don't know how awful the Republicans are behav-ing, just trying to block you on everything. And voters aren't going to know if you aren't willing to tell them."

• “Axe, who oversaw our communications shop, was exasperated when I mentioned my conversation with the Speaker. "Maybe Nancy can tell us how to spin ten percent unemployment," he harrumphed. He reminded me that I'd run on the promise to change Washington, not to engage in the usual partisan food fight. "We can bash Republicans all we want," he said, "but at the end of the day, we're going to keep taking on water so long as the best we can tell voters is Sure, things are terrible-but it could've been worse.'"

• “Although liberal by American standards, Europe's biggest economies were almost all led by center-right governments, elected on the promise of balanced budgets and free-market reforms rather than more government spending.”

• Obama found Europe difficult to get on board despite showing more commonalities.

• He states how politics and especially the presidency are a 24/7 job that causes domestic and relationship issues.

• "Work-life balance" wasn't part of the deal—and given the perilous state of the economy and the world, the volume of incoming work wouldn't slow down anytime soon. Just as athletes in a locker room don't talk about nagging injuries, the members of our White House team learned to suck it up.

• “Still, the cumulative effects of exhaustion—along with an increasingly angry public, an unsympathetic press, disenchanted allies, and an opposition party with both the means and the intent to turn everything we did into an interminable slog—had a way of fraying nerves and shortening tempers.”

• The West Wing has cramped, ill-lit, and rodent infested offices.

• Occasionally, Obama would wanders the halls of the West Wing, pop his head into random offices and ask people how their families were and if there was anything they could be doing better.

• When it came to the White House movie theater, Michelle enjoyed rom-coms while Barry preferred movies involving “terrible things happening to people, and then they die.”

• Paul McCartnery once serenaded Michelle with “Michelle”.

• Obama had a reoccurring dream where he would wander a street, nobody recognized him, he could make friendly small talk, and just enjoy peace and quiet.  A luxury he fells will never return again.

• Barney Frank was the first member of Congress to come out as gay.

• Frank once dressed Obama down in Harvard Law School for asking what he apparently considered to be a dumb question.

• The Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig operated in the Gulf of Mexico (now known as the Gulf of America).

• It was owned by Switzerland-based Transocean.

• The rig had a pressure stabilizer malfunction causing gas to increase and ignited into a massive fireball.  

• 11 of the 126 on board remain unaccounted for.

• Obama understood that as a matter of policy, any transition to a clean energy future would take decades to complete.

• This is why he didn’t mind increasing U.S. oil production despite frustration from his energy voters.

• Under federal law, BP bore full responsibility for cleaning up the spill.

• Despite this, Obama mobilized the Coast Guard, EPA, and Department of the Interior to address any help BP might need.

• The rig was spewing 5,000 barrels of oil a day into the Gulf.

• Bobby Jindal was the nations first Indian-American governor.

• Jindal was Governor of Louisiana.

• British Petroleum (BP) was originally known as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company.

• Their refusal to split profits with Iran’s government in the 1950’s led to the coup that resulted in Iran’s Islamic Revolution.

• The spill was known as “Obama’s Katrina”.

• Sasha would ask “Did you plug the hole yet, Daddy?”

• Obama burst his frustrations behind the scenes.

• “What does he think I’m supposed to do?  Put on my fucking Aquaman gear and swim down there myself with a wrench?”

• Yemen is a dirt-poor country with a barely functioning government.

• When Obama decided to close Guantanamo Bay Prison, he received great backlash because some of the small crime prisoners of war being released were seen as massive terrorist threats.

• “We’re acting like these guys are a bunch of supervillains straight out of a James Bond movie.”

• Nancy’s in Martha’s Vineyard has the best fried shrimp on Earth.

• Obama had a staff shakeup after getting hammered in the 2010 Midterm Elections.

• Obama signed the bill repealing “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” in the U.S. military.

• The State of Israel was established in 1948.

• Obama references the 1978 Camp David Accords brokered by President Jimmy Carter.

• Israel Leader Benjamin Netanyahu spent most of his formative years in Philadelphia, PA.

• Sometimes Obama wonders if a President Hillary Clinton or a President John McCain would have build a stronger union between Israel and Palestine.

• Obama attempted to advise President Mubarak of Egypt to step down and transition power peacefully.

• Egypt fell into a civil war.

• Donald Trump let deep-rooted panic by suggesting Obama was born outside the U.S.

• Obama describes Trump as an attention-seeking real estate developer.

• Trump had asked the Obama Administration for the opportunity to plug the Deepwater Horizon.

• Obama eventually released the long form of his birth certificate to end distractions.

• Obama’s team had the best lead on Osama bin Laden in 10 years.

• The Obama Era was the last period for the original Space Shuttle program.

• Obama supported a future mission to Mars.

• Miami Dade is the nation’s largest college.

• Obama saw Trump as a spectacle which was a form of power in 2011.

• Obama concludes this volume with the recounting of the killing of Osama bin Laden.

—————

Overall, this book covers a great deal of time.  The beginning retells the story of his previous book in abridged form, and then the coverage of his first 2 years is done in pristine fashion.  It was a good read, and I enjoyed it.

Highly Recommended.

On to Book #174: Beauchamp Hall by Danielle Steel

-----

Need to catch up?  See previous blog post: Surviving At The Top.