A Promised Land

 I've enjoyed President Obama's previous books and find him to be both smart and honestly reflective. The first part of his presidential memoir, victory tour, or history book - you can pick it Wilson - has not changed this opinion.

The book is a slog to read. It is great that he ensures that the credit is spread around and attempts to present a fully fleshed picture of what happened in the early days of his national political career. However, it is a lot and, no matter the intentions, slanted towards putting Obama and his team on the right side of history. 

Still, nobody really cares any more today than they did 10 years ago why the Wall Street crowd managed to skate out of the house they burnt down with more money. The argument that cracking heads was the only path to keep ordinary Americans from more suffering still sucks even if it is a true one. Hardly any regular American is going to believe that Larry Summers or Tim Gietner gave advice that was not slanted towards the interests of their friends. Locking up the architects of the financial collapse may have just made matters worse and it may well have been impossible to do more for suffering homeowners, but A Promised Land doesn't do a convincing job of making the case.

Sadly, the book leaves off in the middle of the Arab Spring and Libya discussions. What is presented sounds a lot like more of the same we heard at the time: Obama is cautious to spend American capitol in places where he thinks the prospects for change are slim and he sees the prospects for change in the Middle East as slim at best. He may wish there were a path, but he cannot see it.

I am sympathetic to Obama's basic ideas and largely agree with the positions he took. I also know that I would feel as trapped by circumstances as he did. I just wish Obama could have followed Strunk and White's most sage advice - use less words.