This is not an easy book to review, much less to criticize. The 43rd president of the United States documents his path from an impoverished childhood to the May, 2011 successful military raid that killed Osama Bin Laden in this Volume I. (In spite of his moral integrity, he never addresses the criticism that Bin Laden should have been captured alive to face Justice in a court of law, which would have raised all kinds of jurisdictional disputes.) Along the way, dozens of high profile politicians, and world leaders who are household names come to life as he describes his interactions with them, from the flamboyant Nicholas Sarkozy to the two-faced opportunistic ultra-partisan Mitch McConnell.
Predictably, the controversial decisions he was forced to make are defended with careful reasoning that is hard to argue with, based as they almost all were on the advise of the brightest and most dedicated advisors that he recruited to work with him. Unlike his successor, he is introspective and self-questioning, agonizing over the effects of his policy decisions, not only on Americans but on other citizens of the world. He rejected a proposal to kill Osama with a drone strike on his villa because several women and children would inevitably also be killed. His hospital visits to wounded military personnel and his insistence on being present when the bodies of fallen soldiers are returned home reveal a compassionate conscientiousness that is rare in modern politicians. His efforts to provide a normal childhood for his daughters are a stark contrast to the disregard for the welfare of other family members of the current president. He is generous in his praise of others who show an ability to follow their consciences regardless of their party affiliation and scornful of those whose actions are entirely based on self interest, particularly Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, and Donald Trump. His grasp of the background history leading to current world political dilemmas is quite profound. This book, although long, could serve as a primer on modern world history from the 1960s up to 2011. He recognizes his tendency to wordiness and it shows in the book. “If every argument had two sides, I would usually come up with four.”
On his past ability to connect with ordinary citizens: “ I wondered if any of that was still possible, now that I lived behind gates and guardsmen, my image filtered through Fox News and other media outlets whose entire sorry business model depended on making their audience angry and fearful.”
On leadership. “Looking back, I sometimes ponder the age-old question of how much difference the peculiar characteristics of individual leaders makes in the sweep of history- whether those of us who rise to power are merely conduits for the deep relentless currents of the times, or whether we’re at least partly the authors of what’s to come.”
There are hundreds of verbatim quotes, some of which I suspect must be paraphrased, unless he has had a tape recorder strapped to his body continuously since he was a teen. I am in no position to argue with his decisions on banking reform, health care reform, immigration reform, or climate change mitigation, but there is no doubt about his sincerity and willingness to sacrifice political popularity in pursuing goals in these areas.
This is a great educational tome from a rare humble man of integrity who deserves much more recognition and praise than he has received in the last few years. I am sure that he made many errors, and he would not deny that, but can anyone seriously imagine his successor writing such an honest eloquent treatise? Can he even write a grammatically correct sentence?
Thanks, Din.
Apart from the understandable but dubious claim that the United States is the greatest nation on earth, which is not true by any meaningful metric that I have encountered, I cannot find any fault with this enlightening book. I am looking forward to Volume II.
The Passionate Reader 