Wolffe On Obama

It was not my intention to post book reviews on this blog, but I have just finished reading RENEGADE by Richard Wolffe. The promotion said it is in the tradition of Theodore White’s, Making Of A President, books. “In the tradition of …” is an accurate description. This book is not merely an imitation. Mr. Wolffe has his own style and his own experiences to draw upon. In many ways his book is more than an account of the campaign; it is also a brief biography. Because of Mr. Obama’s background, his race, and what many people will call his improbable rise to political stardom, the biographical material is fascinating and necessary. Few candidates, if any, will be able to emulate his strategy of building a grass roots campaign. The first thing required to make such a strategy work is timing. The worst President in the history of our nation was finally leaving office. I am tempted to say that anyone with more than a beer soaked peanut for a brain desperately wanted change, but that would be too harsh. Suffice it to say that a vast majority of the people recognized the need for change. That was not much of an issue. At issue were the proposed changes and the ability of the respective candidates to bring about those changes.

The next thing required in building a grass roots campaign is a candidate who has the charisma to excite prospective volunteers and make your grass roots organizations attractive to them. Even that is not enough. You still have to find local people who know the community and have the ability and dedication to do a lot of very hard work for very little in the way of monetary compensation. It takes a tremendous amount of time and energy to recruit volunteers and make them effective. It is a risky strategy that burns up a lot of resources. Mr. Wolffe did a good job of describing the grass roots efforts and the charisma of the candidate. He also did a good job of describing the campaign staff, its organization, and the role Mr. Obama played in the planning and the development of the strategies employed.

Finding the right balance in a book that concentrates so much on one candidate can be difficult. If your focus is so narrow that you ignore the campaign strategies and actions of the other candidates, some of the nuances of the strategies and reactions of the candidate you are covering will be lost. I thought Mr. Wolffe achieved a pretty good balance in regard to the primaries and Hillary Clinton, but I would like to have seen more about John McCain’s strategy, his steps and his missteps. At the beginning of the general election campaign the economy went into a tailspin. This added a sense of urgency to the desire for change. Mr. McCain simply did not get it. He said the economy was fundamentally sound, and he continued to advocate still more tax cuts for the wealthy. I thought that one of the more telling moments of the Presidential debates was when Mr. McCain said Mr. Obama was not running against George W. Bush and Mr. Obama replied that it was difficult to distinguish between the policies of Mr. McCain and Mr. Bush. This exchange is not in Mr. Wolffe’s book, but that is a very minor complaint.

Mr. Wolffe never intended to write an in depth analysis of the election. While covering Mr. Obama’s campaign for Newsweek, Mr. Wolffe was given unprecedented access to the candidate. He then used the information he gained from that access to provide us with a portrait of an extraordinary man. The focus is on that man and the events that shaped him as an individual and a candidate. This word portrait shows us Mr. Obama’s personality and his management style. It shows us how Mr. Obama dealt with the stress of a grueling campaign, and how he reacted to the setbacks and the triumphs. It is a valuable resource for anyone who wants to know more about Barrack Obama. It is also a valuable source of information for anyone who wants to research the election in greater depth. Best of all, RENEGADE is a very good read. Enjoy the ride!
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God bless Ted Kennedy. Even his staunchest critics are praising his congeniality and ability to work out compromises. They are not doing this to be polite. They are not simply eulogizing him. They really mean it. He will be missed!

Unfortunately, compromise has become a thing of the past. The filibuster has always been considered an extreme measure that was rarely used. Not now. It is estimated that the Republicans used it 72 times in February 2008 and 56 times in April 2009. This recalcitrant partisanship and breaking of Senate tradition is destructive to the Senate, the nation, and ultimately to the Republican Party. The Democrats should forget about even trying to compromise on health care reform. They should skirt the filibuster rule and ram the legislation through anyway they can because the Republicans have made it clear that they will block any meaningful reform. In regard to other legislation the Democrats should try to work out reasonable compromises whenever possible. If the Republicans refuse to cooperate, ram the legislation through. Let the Republicans become the party of irrelevant as well as the party of no. The people of his nation deserve and want a government that functions. Hopefully the Republicans will think of Ted Kennedy and start behaving like the loyal opposition rather than performance robbing sludge.