Showing posts with label barack obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label barack obama. Show all posts

The Performance of Politics: Obama's Victory and the Democratic Struggle for Power Review

The Performance of Politics: Obama's Victory and the Democratic Struggle for Power
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The Performance of Politics: Obama's Victory and the Democratic Struggle for Power ReviewAlexander's book is a very special one. There is plenty of books on presidential campaigns, and even more on electoral campaigns in general. The analogy between campaigns and shows is also well-known: the social world is a theater, and politicians are often thought to be actors (not to mention those who have been previously movie stars ;-)). Alexander's approach, however, is radically new. In other books, these kind of performances are usually thought of as mere decoys, while the 'real' 'actual' politics is taken to be primarily a matter of power, of money, of deceit.
Alexander is not naive, and he takes into consideration quite well the reality of power. But he is also able to understand that democratic politics is not only about power, but also about meaning. Political campaigns do indeed select the elites. But they also re-enact and re-fresh a strong cultural understanding of the polity. Voters do not follow only their interests, but also their values, their vision of what they are and what they would like to be. Alexander's book provides a quite innovative analysis of the cultural dimension of politics, and his arguments are likely to be important both for scholars and for activists.The Performance of Politics: Obama's Victory and the Democratic Struggle for Power Overview

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The Inauguration of Barack Obama: A Photographic Journal Review

The Inauguration of Barack Obama: A Photographic Journal
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The Inauguration of Barack Obama: A Photographic Journal ReviewIf you want a good reminder of Barack Obama's inauguration, this handsome hardcover is it. It brings back all the goosebump moments. It's the result of the Washington Post's exhaustive coverage of the event, which employed over 100 photographers and reporters.
It makes a nice bookend with the new New York Times book Obama: The Historic Journey as well as, of course, The Audacity of Hope.
Big and beautiful enough to be a coffee table book, The Inauguration of Barack Obama is more than a collection of photos. Also included is a stirring foreword by Washington Post Editor-at-Large Ben Bradlee, who recalls the first inauguration he attended, of John F. Kennedy, and writes: "This shift of power is orderly, but it's always exciting. It's the essence of democracy." Though the coverage of it isn't as thorough as in the Times book, Obama's story is detailed, too, from childhood through young adulthood -- when he, in his own words, burned inwardly with a "knotted, howling assertion of self" -- through his marriage and family life. At the back of the book is the full text of the Inaugural Address.
I like the variety of photos. One spread shows the thousands gathered for the ceremony itself, another simply Obama's hand encircling his wife's waist on the Day of Service. A sober tribute from Obama and Biden at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery is followed by a sweet portrait of Biden holding his young grandson. My favorites are the more candid, silly shots: First lady Michelle Obama getting her gown stepped on by her husband while dancing; daughter Sasha playfully holding her hand in front of her sister Malia's camera, ruining her photo; bundled-up fans at 4 a.m. on the National Mall looking like mummies in their sleeping bags.
The presidential seal on the dust jacket is embossed into the glossy paper. Underneath, the cover of the book looks exactly like the dust jacket, front cover and back.
Here's the chapter list:
Foreword by Ben Bradlee
1. Road to the Presidency
2. Inauguration Weekend: Day 1, Destination: Washington, D.C.
3. Inauguration Weekend: Day 2, Honoring the Dead, Raising a Chorus
4. Inauguration Weekend: Day 3, Answering a Call to Service
5. Inauguration Day: All Eyes on the Moment
6. Text of Inaugural Address
7. AfterwordThe Inauguration of Barack Obama: A Photographic Journal Overview

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The First Campaign: Globalization, the Web, and the Race for the White House Review

The First Campaign: Globalization, the Web, and the Race for the White House
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The First Campaign: Globalization, the Web, and the Race for the White House ReviewThis book is well worth reading. It shows a revolution that is taking place in political communications and can give any political person some ideas. You can gain more information on the book beyond Amazon by going to the book's web site, which has the same domain name as the title. As we watch the current political campaigns for the Presidency, you can see what Graff is talking about by going to You Tube and looking at the various different presidential campaigns on You Tube. You should also check out the main campaign sites on the web and see how they are linking to places like Myspace and You Tube. This would help you make the book come alive. I have a list of respected books relating to future watch studies on my Amazon profile for those who might want to get a larger picture of future trends.The First Campaign: Globalization, the Web, and the Race for the White House Overview

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Paranoid Nation: The Real Story of the 2008 Fight for the Presidency Review

Paranoid Nation: The Real Story of the 2008 Fight for the Presidency
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Paranoid Nation: The Real Story of the 2008 Fight for the Presidency ReviewThis highly readable new book acknowledges, and should appeal to, the enormous number of Americans who believe in one "conspiracy theory" or another. Matt Towery's own conspiracy theory -- that the 2008 election had far less to do with Barack Obama or John McCain than with behind-the-scenes, dynastic puppet masters vying for power not now but far into the future -- may seem a bit far out, until you start turning the pages. Besides (and I admit some bias here, because I have known the author for many years), Towery has become one of the nation's top pollsters because he has an uncanny knack for being right when just about everyone else is wrong. I know of few other pundits who follow politics so closely (or with such a suspicious eye), and whether you end up agreeing with him or not, he has produced an extremely entertaining and thought provoking analysis of what "really" happened in 2008. In short, Towery makes it fashionable to be at least a little paranoid.Paranoid Nation: The Real Story of the 2008 Fight for the Presidency Overview

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Time President Obama: The Path to The White House Review

Time President Obama: The Path to The White House
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Time President Obama: The Path to The White House ReviewWow. I had pre-ordered this last month, and hadn't expected it's release for several more weeks. What a nice surprise that is has been released early. I guess Time pushed out in time for Christmas. Anyway, this is great book to remember a historic election. The book is only 96 pages, and it is divided into 10 chapters. My favorite chapters are: "How he learned to win", and "Defeating Hillary". The book gives a nice timeline of Barack's rise to power. It is loaded with never seen before, behind the scenes photo's of Barack and his family. You get to see Barack Obama "the family man", as well as Barack Obama "the politician". Even if you didn't support Obama, this is still a great keepsake to remember an election like no other. This is a true collector's item, at a very modest price.Time President Obama: The Path to The White House Overview

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The Inaugural Address, 2009: Together with Abraham Lincoln's First and Second Inaugural Addresses and The Gettysburg Address and Ralph Waldo Emerson's Self-Reliance Review

The Inaugural Address, 2009: Together with Abraham Lincoln's First and Second Inaugural Addresses and The Gettysburg Address and Ralph Waldo Emerson's Self-Reliance
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The Inaugural Address, 2009: Together with Abraham Lincoln's First and Second Inaugural Addresses and The Gettysburg Address and Ralph Waldo Emerson's Self-Reliance ReviewWe must all, each and every American, thank Penguin for assembling this great collection of historic American essays and speeches, above all the charter our President has made with our people.
President Barack Hussein Obama pledges: "We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness."
Thusly does our President set the difficult path we must walk in order to survive and to serve.
In this volume we may study carefully the brilliant words of our President, words each true American takes to heart, simple words from a brilliant leader. We find cornerstone phrases from past American leaders, in particular the Gettysburg Address, an earnest and simple cry for peace spoken by President Abraham Lincoln in the very heart of horrible war. We find here as well President Lincoln's First and Second Inaugural Addresses.
Above all we may here once more, and with renewed urgency, meditate the great essay by early American Transcendentalist philosopher and preacher, Ralph Waldo Emerson on Self-Reliance, an early indication of the heart and the spirit of America we do very well to restore, in order to restore our nation along the plan outlined in President Obama's great Inaugural Address.
We are fortunate therefore to find gathered under one cover these quintessentially American addresses, a collection which must grace each American hearth for daily reflection in these coming days.
Read this book. Every home in America must have this one book. Certainly we can watch President Obama's First Inaugural Address on the Internet, probably even on youtube, but we cannot hold it in our heart and hands as we can this book, with family and friends and loved ones gathered about us. We must read this book; we must read it together, and we must work together for the fulfillment of this dream for our survival in hope. As our President puts it so very well:
"With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.
Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America."The Inaugural Address, 2009: Together with Abraham Lincoln's First and Second Inaugural Addresses and The Gettysburg Address and Ralph Waldo Emerson's Self-Reliance Overview

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Reading Obama: Dreams, Hope, and the American Political Tradition Review

Reading Obama: Dreams, Hope, and the American Political Tradition
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Reading Obama: Dreams, Hope, and the American Political Tradition Review"Conservative" is a word. A 'signifier' in the jargon of philosophy. As a 'word', it ought to have a meaning, to signify something. I've checked my American Heritage dictionary, and I find two primary meanings The first is: "tending to favor the preservation of the existing order". The second is: "moderate, prudent, cautious". To my mind, both meanings would perfectly fit Barack Obama as President, making him patently a "conservative" for better or worse. The "existing order" in the USA is the mixed and balanced economy - loosely watch-dogged capitalism with a modest safety net - paired with the mixed and balanced plan of governance established by the Constitution and its discreet number of amendments. That's NOT the order which radical extremists of the Right want to preserve! By that definition, Sarah Palin and Rand Paul are scarcely conservative. Likewise, it would be hard to make a case that someone who boasts of being a "rogue" and who has participated in a movement in Alaska to secede from the United States should be perceived as "moderate, prudent, cautious."
The Barack Obama whom Professor James Kloppenberg unreservedly admires, whose words and deeds remind the Harvard historian so clearly of those of James Madison, is above all a pragmatic moderate, not attracted to ideology per se of either the Right or the Left, a political man committed -- sincerely committed -- to "deliberative democracy." That commitment has been demonstrated from the beginning of Obama's presidency by his non-imperial relationship with Congress, the 'deliberative' branch of government, and by his cautious attempts to involve the "other party" in bi-partisan discourse. Here's a key paragraph from Dr. Kloppenberg's text:
""Obama is drawn toward the ideas of anti-foundationalism, historicism, and philosophical pragmatism. As an anti-foundationalist, he questions the existence of universal truths. As a historicist, he doubts that any ideas transcend the particularity of time and culture. Finally, as a philosophical pragmatist he insists that all propositions, positions, and policies must be subjected to continuing critical scrutiny. Whereas many activists on both the left and the right proclaim their incommensurable principles with the fervor of true believers, Obama sees things differently. He believes that anti-foundationalism, historicism, and philosophical pragmatism are consistent with the principles of civic republicanism and deliberative democracy on which America was built and for which it should stand.""
How has Dr. Kloppenberg formed this perception of a president so often described in radically different terms? By attentive reading of his two books and his hundreds of public speeches. By listening to the man's own words, analyzing their consistency, comparing them to the writings and speeches of the Founding Fathers of this republic as well as those of thinkers and leaders of the two centuries of America's 'experiment' in representative government. Dr. Kloppenberg finds that Pres. Obama's political values and positions are fundamentally consistent with the American tradition of reasoned disagreement, adaptation, and compromise -- in a word, Discourse. This entire book is devoted to enlarging and documenting the perception that Obama is whole-hearted in his devotion to "preserving" the equanimity established by the Constitution. Here are some lines that Prof. Kloppenberg quotes from a speech Obama delivered on August 31, 2010:
""The greatness of our democracy is grounded in our ability to move beyond our differences, and to learn from our experiences as we confront the many challenges ahead.""
Talk-show ranters might denounce that statement as mere rhetorical boiler-plate, but Dr. Kloppenberg argues that barack Obama means precisely what he says, and also means to govern accordingly. Deliberatively. Moderately.
Professor Kloppenberg does not often turn to Europe or to European politicians in his analysis, preferring to trace the influence of American thinkers from Madison to John Dewey to John Rawls, on the very American Barack Obama. But I find that his representation of Obama's 'mentality' seems remarkably close to the ideas of the contemporary German political philosopher Jurgen Habermas -- mentioned briefly by Kloppeneberg -- another 'thinker' regarded as too centrist by both Right and Left dogmatists. What Dr. Kloppenberg and Pres. Obama might call "foundationalism", Habermas simply calls "ideology", and what Kloppenberg calls "deliberation" Habermas calls "discourse". Under either name, deliberative democracy or discourse is the antidote to ideology. The 'discourse theory of morality', in Habermas's view, conceives morality as a collective and dialogical process of reaching consensus. The ultimate goal of such consensus is to to establish and/or preserve "the kinds of institutions ... needed to protect individuals against the attractions of political extremism, on the one hand, and the depredations of a burgeoning capitalist economy, on the other."
Habermas is a strenuous, abstruse thinker and a ponderous writer. So certainly is John Rawls. It wouldn't serve Barack Obama's electoral prospects to try to expound their notions to American audiences, though I'm fully certain that he is aware of them. Habermas is, above all, an "optimist" about the capacity of the public to "identify the social and institutional conditions that foster autonomy .... truly democratic institutions capable of withstanding the corrosive effects of capitalism and of the state administration." Now, THAT'S Moderation! Neither a statist nor an anarcho-capitalist be! And that seems to me to be the commitment to optimism that Barack Obama pledges.Reading Obama: Dreams, Hope, and the American Political Tradition Overview

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Obamanomics: How Barack Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses Review

Obamanomics: How Barack Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses
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Obamanomics: How Barack Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses Review"Obamanomics" is the title of two books on the economic platform of the Obama administration. Apparently the phrase has a nice catch to publishers. But in the hands of Timothy Carney, author of this book, "Obamanomics" is shorthand for corporatism; the use of big government regulations to support corporate profits. This, of course, is not how most commentators see the new administration. They accept the rhetoric that this administration is promoting change by putting the interests of ordinary citizens ahead of corporate lobbyists. As this important book reveals, nothing could be further from the truth.
During his campaign for president, Obama carefully crafted a message of change. A repeated theme of the campaign was that big business had too much power in the Bush administration and his own administration would strictly regulate lobbyists and their corporate sponsors. Throughout the election, the Obama campaign successfully portrayed John McCain as a representative of "Big Business" while suggesting that Obama was funded by donations from average Americans. This myth is still believed by many Americans today. Throughout the book, however, Carney shows how fundamentally wrong this conception is. Obama received far more money from big pharmaceutical companies, like Pfizer, from big oil, like Exxon Mobil, from GE and Goldman Sachs, than McCain. Indeed, he received more than any other candidate for President in history. Carney carefully details the money spent on Obama industry by industry and in subsequent chapters describes just what all this money bought.
In general, popular mythology notwithstanding, large corporations routinely benefit from government regulation. Carney details several ways this can happen. Government contracts and direct subsidies are of course enormously profitable, but other effects of regulation are less obvious. One of the least obvious ways is that regulatory costs protect large corporations from competition. Consider for example the Waxman-Markey climate change bill. This bill proposes to limit greenhouse gas emissions by giving away carbon credits to industry and then letting markets decide how to price and trade those credits. Conveniently enough, the bill will simply give away credits worth 51 billion dollars to established corporations like GE, Exxon, and Chevron. But new businesses, hoping to compete with these giants, will have to purchase the credits. Barriers to entry are essential to a monopoly and markets don't readily provide these. But governments do, and so it is no wonder that as the size of the federal government has expanded, so too has the influence of corporate lobbyists who stand the most to gain under the policies of the Obama adminstration.
One of the key points in the book is that none of this has anything to do with Obama's intentions. Obama may well believe his own rhetoric. He may think (or hope) that he is representing the little guy against the power of professional lobbyists, but the simple facts are that when government largess is offered out, those with the most resources will be the first to collect. An example of how this logic plays out is Obama's health care initiative. Despite his rhetoric against pharmaceuticals and HMOs, Obama received a lot of money from this industry, far more than his opponent. During the campaign, he offered 4 solutions to the health care crisis: a "public option" (meaning a government run health insurance to "compete" with private care), opposing individual mandates (ie., requiring an individual to buy health care), subsidizing insurance, and preserving a tax subsidy on employer sponsored (but not privately purchased) health care. Now, the first two solutions are not favorable to industry and the last two are. And the current bill ... favors industry and will include an individual mandate. The first two campaign suggestions are off the table. Again, big business wins and the tax payer is left footing the bill. To paraphrase Gore Vidal, this is truly socialism for the rich and capitalism (with heavy taxes) for everyone else.
Carney examines every one of Obama's economic initiatives and finds the same pattern. Rhetorical claims to be opposing big insurance, big tobacco, big auto, etc, and signing or promoting legislation that will ultimately benefit the bottom line of these very corporations who often write the legislation! Carney does correctly note that none of this started with Obama. Indeed, George W. Bush also worked to favor his corporate cronies, though to nothing like this degree. But when it comes to what to do about this problem, Carney offers few solutions. He supports Ron Paul's campaign to audit the Federal Reserve (it would be nice to know how much money was created out of thin air to buy AIG and save Goldman Sachs.) But ultimately we need to recognize that the problem lies in government itself. Governmental regulation inherently favors the powerful and they themselves know this. Indeed, corporations have used governmental regulation to promote their agenda for the better part of a century. Anyone familiar with Gabriel Kolko's classic The Triumph of Conservatism knows that from the progressive era on big business has used government to protect itself from competition. What we need then, is to recognize the difference between rhetoric and reality when it comes to political proposals. That is not an easy task when dealing with someone as charismatic as President Obama. But reading this book is a good start.Obamanomics: How Barack Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses Overview

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In Justice: Inside the Scandal That Rocked the Bush Administration Review

In Justice: Inside the Scandal That Rocked the Bush Administration
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In Justice: Inside the Scandal That Rocked the Bush Administration ReviewOf the eight fired United States Attorneys over one year ago, no one seemed more representative of the hurt and bewilderment than David Iglesias, the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico. His unusual heritage, military service and the fact that he was a Republican added heft to his Congressional testimony as he sought to tell his story about being sacked along with seven others. His new book, "In Justice" (which certainly could have been one word) is a terrific look at a moment when politics and justice met head-on with immediate unfortunate consequences...but consequences that provided a forum for truth re-establishing the upper hand over politics.
The firing of the attorneys, not only in the way it was handled but the premeditated way in which the plan was cooked up, would have been a disgrace by itself, but the fact that these noble men and women were also Republicans made the whole affair that much more curious. Much of the first half of "In Justice" is spent on background...Iglesias's upbringing in and out of the United States... and his emotional state when he learns of being fired and those subsequent feelings for days afterward. But the book really heats up when he testifies before the Senate and his spirit of fighting back comes to the fore. Chief among the original "black hats" are New Mexico Senator Pete Domenici and Congresswoman Heather Wilson, who each made improper calls to Iglesias during an ongoing case. The speculation then centers on who made up a master list of attorneys to be axed and exactly why the plan was ever devised. Iglesias and others contend that their loyalty, which was not blind to the Bush White House, was a deciding factor in their collective dismissals and as the facts tumbled out, this became a very likely primary reason. What remains a mystery to this day is who orchestrated the move. Was it the hapless former Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, who seemed to have a major problem with memory...? Karl Rove, whose fingerprints tend to be on or near every White House catastrophe....? Or, did the president have any hand in the matter? One might suspect that as this feckless administration comes to an end, more and more insiders will be telling their own tales of woe, and we may learn much more about this particular case. I hope for David Iglesias's sake and for the sake of the other fired attorneys, that the whole truth will someday be revealed. I highly recommend "In Justice" and commend David Iglesias for helping to get this story out and for his narrative as to why it ever took place at all.In Justice: Inside the Scandal That Rocked the Bush Administration Overview

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A Presidency in Peril: The Inside Story of Obama's Promise, Wall Street's Power, and the Struggle to Control our Economic Future Review

A Presidency in Peril: The Inside Story of Obama's Promise, Wall Street's Power, and the Struggle to  Control our Economic Future
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A Presidency in Peril: The Inside Story of Obama's Promise, Wall Street's Power, and the Struggle to Control our Economic Future ReviewPaul Kuttner gives disillusioned Obama voters the vocabulary to understand why the President who instilled such hope in 2008 leaves us so cold in 2010. While the administration chases increasingly unpopular ancillary goals, Americans worry about their pocketbooks, and watch Obama's economists squander his mandate by protecting the people who created our mess. President Obama lets the noble goal of bipartisanship trump actually getting anything done.
Kuttner, a political economist, dissects specifically the administration's poor fiscal choices in its first fourteen months. He isn't a historian, polemicist, or journalist; he presents no illusion of completeness or reportorial balance. Kuttner doesn't deny that he wishes Obama were more proactive and Keynesian, and that he's urging the President further to the left. He writes in hopes that Obama can reclaim the initiative and turn a failing economy around.
This book spares no personalities. Kuttner's chief enemy isn't the Republican minority, but the Robert Rubin branch of the Democratic party. Rubin as much as anyone bears personal blame for the current snafu, but Obama's economic team is dominated by Rubin protégés. Instead of boldly wading in to repair the deeply damaged economy, Obama has stayed hands-off, letting Rubin, Geithner, and Bernanke molly-coddle those who created our economic mess.
Massive TARP funds stopped mega-banks from hemorrhaging money, but did nothing about the institutional gangrene that created the problem in the first place. The administration has kept the executives who created the mess in charge of the banks they destroyed, falsely claiming helplessness as the execs award themselves end-of-year bonuses totaling more than the banks' net revenues, bonuses only possible through direct transfusions of taxpayer money.
Meanwhile, regional banks that followed rules see their securities turn to worthless paper, and go into receivership, thanks to trickle-down sleaze. Supposed fire-breathing populists like Barney Frank write cut-rate gifts to the most rotten banks, while voices like Sheila Bair and Elizabeth Warren, standing for responsibility and reform, find themselves in the margins. The rot is bandaged but not repaired. And our President seems strangely absent as this continues.
It doesn't have to be this way. Kuttner looks back to FDR, Lyndon Johnson, and even George H.W. Bush for examples of Presidents who stood against economic chicanery. And he turns to two Democratic Presidents for examples of how an administration can recover after initial serious missteps. Will the Obama administration, he wonders, resemble another Bill Clinton, or will our President redeem himself with the populist efficiency of Harry Truman?
Movement progressives looking for a voice to unite themselves against the interests should read this book. It provides the facts, the names, and the patterns that made our mess possible. And it urges a clean break with the past, a break Obama refuses to make. Perhaps this is the knowledge we've needed to stop sitting on our collective hands and reclaim the initiative we enjoyed two years ago. Robert Kuttner offers the hope Barack Obama did once upon a time.A Presidency in Peril: The Inside Story of Obama's Promise, Wall Street's Power, and the Struggle to Control our Economic Future Overview

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Deconstructing Obama: The Life, Loves, and Letters of America's First Postmodern President Review

Deconstructing Obama: The Life, Loves, and Letters of America's First Postmodern President
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Deconstructing Obama: The Life, Loves, and Letters of America's First Postmodern President ReviewI think the two (so far) totally negative reviews (one written by someone who hasn't even read the book) are politically motivated. As someone who at one time was an Obama supporter, as well as someone who loves language, I found this a fascinating book. Cashill's thesis is that Dreams From My Father was not written by Obama but by Bill Ayers, and not just as a ghost writer, but as author. What's more, the book is not really Obama's life story but a story concocted by Ayers based on his own experiences. Cashill offers extensive evidence to support this thesis, and it's not just the language and story-line similarities between Dreams and Ayers' own book. There are many inconsistencies in Obama's life story, some of which he's recounted himself at various times.
What interested me almost as much as the exploration of the truth of Obama's life story is the way the media showed no interest in investigating any of it. They'd circled their wagons around Obama and not only didn't want to dig for the truth, they brushed off those who did by calling them kooks. As someone who works hard to get the fullest sense of the news, and both sides of issues, I am appalled (although not surprised) by the total lack of interest by the media.
The reason I gave the book four stars instead of five is that Cashill presents so much detail in support of his thesis that at times I had trouble seeing the forest for the trees. I'd heard an interview by Cashill (which is why I bought the book), and if I hadn't heard him recite the bones of this story very clearly and concisely, I think I'd have had something of a struggle to keep my eye on the main thread of the argument. I should point out also, that he did not start out to prove that Ayers was the author, in fact Cashill hadn't even considered that. It came to him slowly as the evidence added up.

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The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama's Historic Victory Review

The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama's Historic Victory
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The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama's Historic Victory ReviewDavid Plouffe was the man behind the machine that was the extraordinary Obama Campaign for President in 2008. This book goes deeper than any of the other books written so far (and there have been many) on this incredible campaign story. I couldn't put the book down last night after seeing it on my doorstep. Plouffe has anecdotes that no other author on the 2008 election has had yet and his access and inside story are not only exciting but incredibly interesting. If you are a democrat who supported Obama this is a must read to see how Plouffe and company energized a nation and spread the message of change. If you are a republican this is a must read to see how it was the Obama campaign was so easily able to convince indie voters and some republicans to support Barack Obama. This book is history, fresh history, and is a must read for anyone interested in politics.The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama's Historic Victory Overview

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The Other Barack: The Bold and Reckless Life of President Obama's Father Review

The Other Barack: The Bold and Reckless Life of President Obama's Father
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The Other Barack: The Bold and Reckless Life of President Obama's Father Review
"The morning had been golden; the noontide was bronze; and the evening lead. But all were polished till it shone after its fashion." Winston Churchill about Lord Curzon
"Obama is considered ... to be a slippery fellow" - notation in Barack Obama Sr. US Immigration fileThis book invites immediate comparison to Janny Scott's "A Singular Woman" about Ann Dunham. Both are biographies of the President's parents done by a newspaper reporter and both were based on extensive travel, interviews and original research by the authors. Both serve as both history and a personal narrative.
Sally Jacobs has done a excellent job in plumping her subject- she traveled to Kenya, and its backroads and villages, and to Hawaii. She has interviewed many primary sources. She has contemporaneous correspondence about Obama mentioned in letters of US literary workers back to relatives. She has looked into Kenya's archives, tribal memories, recollections of village neighbors and has a number of revelations from FOIA requests of the government. Jacobs even cites internal meeting minutes from Kenya's Tourist Development Trust from 1967.
Where Janny Scott's book is guilty of covering up facts to protect the reputation of her subject (and her son), Jacobs gives a well researched factual history that doesnt seem to have a spin to it. Scott's book looks all the worse in the comparison: Jacobs talked to many of the same people as Scott (such as Neil Abercromie and Dunham friend Susan Botkin Blake) and yet uncovers a wealth more information. In fact its almost impossible not to come away with the impression that Janny Scott must have learned the same things but censored the unflattering details.
Barack Obama Sr. life story is essentially one of a very talent person striving to be a Big Man and the collateral damage to all of his personal relationships. In Kenya in the 1950's the best way to become a Big Man was to get a foreign education and be part of the new generation of leaders who would take over in post colonial Kenya. All of the women, the marriages and the scattered children were an after thought to that goal.
Jacobs clears up much about the Obama/Dunham marriage: for instance why there were no witnesses- it took place on an elopement to Maui. It also is now clear that Obama and Dunham never lived together after they married in February. Some news stories try to claim there is a cottage where Obama/Dunham lived together in the first year, but it is clear that Dunham never left her parents' home. Prior to meeting Dunham, Obama had been warned by the University over his assertive pursuit of women on campus. Dunham comes off as extremely gullible- she told a friend after she was at the University of Washington that Obama was going to graduate, go to Harvard and when he was accepted she was supposed to go ahead to Massachusetts and prepare a home for them. That obviously never happened, in fact she would not see Barack Sr. for almost another 10 years. The only time she wised up that she was being played was when he mentioned in his letters his dating life at Harvard while she was left waiting for some form of financial support.
The book also provide some context for the Obama/Dunham relationship. Contrary reports that Obama was part of the JFK airlift, Jacobs demonstrates in detail that he was not and how it was he came to be excluded. Obama then went to great effort to arrange for his own foreign student program which ultimately concluded with him entering the University of Hawaii. Part of that process lead university and Immigration officials to watch him closely. He had to be politic in his behavior or he could be deported at the drop of a hat. He was extremely cagey about whether he was already married- telling different stories at different time in a way that exasperated school officials. In the case of Dunham, whom he met in Russian language class and got pregnant within a month, the picture emerges that he would have been in a very uncomfortable position if he had refused to marry the girl. The university was already on him about his womanizing- abandoning a knocked up newly arrived 18yo would probably be the last straw. Jacob's FOIA reveals Obama told the university he was going to marry Dunham but the baby up for adoption with the Salvation Army. The 'A' file notation indicates that Obama should be investigated "if he tries claim US citizenship".
Ultimately Harvard and US Immigration officials put end to Obama's trajectory when he gets to Harvard. There is more womanizing, an abandoned wife and son in Hawaii, and ,it become evident, bigamy. Too much of an unsavory character they conclude. Harvard administrators agreed to a plan to "to ease him out". They put an end to Obama's US stay and tell him he must return to Kenya- he could submit his dissertation from there. On the way out the door he makes a half-hearted offer to Ruth Baker to follow him, and he must have been substantially surprised when she did show up in Kenya, eventually becoming his third wife. The proposal took place while he already had two wives.
Harvard terminating his Phd program and that represented the end of the upward trajectory of Obama Sr.'s life. He never did get the dissertation filed or obtain his doctorate, despite styling himself Dr. Obama back in Kenya.
The reader maybe familiar with Obama's academic paper "Problems Facing Our Socialism" but it has never been really clear, given his British writing style and habit of rhetorical phrasing, if he was advocating for socialism or critiquing the extent of an existing socialist plan. It becomes clear from Jacob's research of university debating days that Obama was an advocate for Communism, albeit with a decided African communitarian twist. The background makes clear that Kenya's first post independence government took a far more pragmatic approach and essentially embarked on a master plan of a basically capitalist expansion, but with increasing 'Africanization' of the powerful posts. Obama sought to pull the government Leftward. This essentially put him on the outs with the ruling party in a time when, as one peer recounted, the government was so desperate for Kenyans with overseas training "it was largely a matter of showing up; you could literally choose chose what job you wanted."
Eventually, envy of his peers he considered less able, heavy drinking, and a series of drunk driving accidents continued his downward spiral until he was a shell of his former promise and virtually unemployable. He would die in yet another drunk driving accident.
As personal narrative, Barack Obama Sr. life story is fascinating. Like George Curzon he was a highly intelligent man with a great capacity for work, and excellent speaking voice and a dapper personal style. Improbably, he was also a sensational dancer- still remember today for the dance contests he won in Happy Valley resorts back in the '50's. He was remembered as always being the best boy in class, despite not studying. He was clearly marked for greatness.
Like Curzon, he was also a womanize and a man of great personal vanity. The first blot on his record was getting kicked out of the elite Maseno boarding school despite his excellent grades, because of his oppositional nature. He would lecture the prefects on their grades; he felt that minor rules like staying off the grass shouldn't apply to him; he snuck off campus and got drunk. And the end of the term he sent a anonymous letter to the headmaster critiquing all the things he felt were wrong with the school- poor food, bad uniforms, second rate faculty- in a very bumptious way for a mid-teen. The headmaster expelled Obama and put a "not recommended" in his file. This ultimately prevented him from being considered as part of the Kenyan brain trust airlift and almost blocked his education for good. It was the first of the many incidents of self sabotage. Indeed he knew as a foreign student he was on thin ice in the US, but yet continued behaviors he had been warned about. At the Tourism Department he was on a one year probation based on their doubts about his character but he continue his heavy drinking, including on the job.
Obama Sr. was a man of great ability, but also of egotism, vanity and snobbery. Anyone inferior to himself he resented if they were in a position of superior authority. He wasnt afraid to critique during class what he took to be (and probably were) loose academic standards at the University of Hawaii. And he felt free to upbraid anyone he felt was of low class or poorly dressed.
Obama was gifted; he was the best man in all of his environments (at least until he got to Harvard); he was motivated to be the best; he was an attractive and magnetic man. And yet professionally he never achieved what he should of. Personally, he had many broken marriages to women he beat and sired children scatter across the globe who are still scared by his abandonment (he spawned a minor publishing industry in his children writing ruminating memoirs about his absence in their lives).
It would be easy to hang it on his drinking, but that seems much to pat to me, and probably more of a result than a cause. Whatever it was in Barack Obama Sr. that lead him to be the best and be recognized as the best, probably also ate him alive as he realized he wasnt going to make it.
Jacobs talk to former MP and former schoolmate Wilson Ayah who sums up "Barack was a very upsetting case. He didn't commit a crime. He didn't do something wrong particularly. He just didn't finish the race. As schoolboys you were always taught that you must finish the race no matter what. But he didn't. He just collapsed."
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I'd rate this as a 4.5 star book. As...Read more›The Other Barack: The Bold and Reckless Life of President Obama's Father Overview

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The Manchurian President: Barack Obama's Ties to Communists, Socialists and Other Anti-American Extremists Review

The Manchurian President: Barack Obama's Ties to Communists, Socialists and Other Anti-American Extremists
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The Manchurian President: Barack Obama's Ties to Communists, Socialists and Other Anti-American Extremists ReviewThe first few chapters are poignant, yet slow moving. The book really takes off in Chapter 4, when it begins to discuss in detail Obama's adoption of Saul Alinsky-type tactics, and his outright affiliation to socialist and communist PAC's and communal organizing non-profits. After reading, "The Manchurian President", you may still wonder how America could have possibly elected BHO, but you won't wonder why he acts like a marxist through his public policy. The truth is, he's been around marxism and socialism his entire life, and his policy reflects this stunning truth.The Manchurian President: Barack Obama's Ties to Communists, Socialists and Other Anti-American Extremists Overview

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The Obama Syndrome: Surrender at Home, War Abroad Review

The Obama Syndrome: Surrender at Home, War Abroad
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The Obama Syndrome: Surrender at Home, War Abroad ReviewEditor of New Left Review, London-based Ali criticizes Barack Obama's obedience to the same corporate and military powers that controlled previous American administrations. What Ali sums up about a previous analysis of Obama speaks for Ali's own agenda: "A useful antidote to the gushing biographies." Ali's progressive stance confronts the illusions sold to voters in 2008 by a compliant media and capitalist firms who provided the vast majority of Obama's $900 million campaign funds. Goldman Sachs contributed nearly a million; who could claim surprise by their bailout?
His leftist presuppositions infuse this short series of what read more like related essays than a seamlessly constructed narrative. Ali admits a rush to print, preferring to provide a "preliminary report on the first 1000 days of the Obama presidency." However, with mention of the Gaza flotilla attack by Israel, the resignation of General McChrystal, and the BP oil spill, this is as current an overview as can be expected.
It begins energetically. The first "mixed-race" president reinvented himself as both white enough and black enough to win. "Little of what Obama actually said in a combination of blandishments, special pleading and specious arguments justified much optimism, but the manner of his speaking, the color of his skin and the constant invocation of the word `change' helped create a new spirit in the country--Obamania--that propelled him to the White House."
Ali cites African American scholars and activists among Obama's critics: "The emblematic significance of Obama's victory should not be underestimated, but did it ever move beyond symbols?" Ali doubts it did. After surveying the superficial gloss of Obama's campaign makeover, he turns to Obama's imperial aspirations, which extend those of his predecessors.
Surveying Iraqi and Afghani wars, Palestinian resistance, and Iranian and Pakistani dangers supposed by an Anglo-American military and multinational hegemony, Ali amasses more information akin to a current affairs journalist's approach than that of a political analyst.
This leftist reaction, in other contexts, typifies Ali's characteristic limitations. His progressive opposition leaves the reader wondering--in a world where no other superpower appears ready to take over America's role as carrier of the big stick--what viable alternatives might be.
As a weak response to such a crisis, Obama's "sonorous banality and armor-plated hypocrisy" earn derision. Ali exposes Obama's habitual lack of will. Rather than true reform for Wall Street, the healthcare system, or the Supreme Court, Obama capitulates to lobbyists and fundraisers who control politicians under a Democratic or Republican administration. Obama pretends that an audacity of hope leading to genuine advance will occur under his watch, but the "implication is always that the Washington system prevents any change that he could believe in."
One might argue that the Obama syndrome, no matter who inherits this affliction, may collapse as the parasite consumes the host. How can capitalism sustain itself in this self-devouring, environmentally threatened, and profit-driven world? Closing this collection, rather than appending an article on the failed Oakland health care system or the situation in Yemen, Ali could have addressed this dire scenario instead. One wonders about his solutions, two decades after the collapse of mass capitalist opposition, from his perspective in a London-based far-left.
Ali might have enriched this study. He could have articulated more often the fears and hopes of communities, grassroots organizations, and everyday folks who are entangled within their historical allegiance to Obama's own maker, the Democratic party machine. It dominates many cities and suburbs. No true radicals will get elected, even there. Few residents bother with whatever New Left Review encourages, when it comes to a disaffected American voter, or a non-voter majority. This lack of electoral choice prevents real change from occurring in a polarized, bipartisan, corporate-funded, unreformed campaigning system. The Democratic party's "leadership" will not support any more than the GOP a truly alternative candidate--no matter what his or her complexion--when it comes to perpetuating its own empire.
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The Roots of Obama's Rage Review

The Roots of Obama's Rage
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The Roots of Obama's Rage ReviewThree weeks ago, Dinesh D'Souza has written the cover story for Forbes Magazine. He based the story on his book, about to be published about President Obama. D'Souza's theory is that our President is driven by an anti-colonialist ideological hatred.
After the publication of the article, the White House spokesman Robert Gibbs was sent to contact the magazine editor, and in passing derided the magazine, saying: "It's a stunning thing, to see a publication you would see in a dentist's office, so lacking in truth and fact."
D'Souza claims to be a lot like Obama: both with cosmopolitan backgrounds, with roots in former colonized countries, nonwhite, influenced by mixed marriages, born the same year, attended Ivy League colleges and graduating the same year.
What seemed to inspire the author to write this book was an article he read back in 2008, in the London Telegraph titled "Barack Obama's Lost Brother Found in Kenya". The 26 year old George Hussein Obama was found living in a Nairobi slum. "I live here on less than a dollar a month." George said. Humiliated by his poverty, he confessed he never mentioned the famous half-brother. The two Obamas met briefly in 2006 when Barack was a senator, but the two didn't connect. D'Souza was shocked that the Senator, with a net worth in the millions of dollars did not lift a finger to help a destitute close relative. George wanted to be a mechanic, and D'Souza raised a couple thousand dollars to help George move out of his hut. By then D'Souza believes the Obama's presidential campaign caught up with the guy, and George was apparently told to go into hiding.
D'Souza believes that since childhood, Obama's dream was always to become an anti-colonial warrior. And also that his father's dream became his own. He makes the important distinction: Obama's first book is not titled "Dreams OF My Father" but "Dreams FROM My Father", a distinction that convinces D'Souza that the son admits he has inherited his father's dreams.
They wanted to change the systems, the hierarchies and change history. The problem, as D'Souza puts it: "How does a man like Obama get elected in a country which has virtually no awareness of the defining events of his life, no concern for the injustices that move him, and consequently no sense of urgency about the need to put the resolution of the colonial problem at the forefront of the national agenda?
Another important question from D'Souza: is Obama a descendent and disciple of Martin Luther King? No. Obama's politics arise from a very different source than Martin Luther King's dream. D'Souza says that MLK's dream is irrelevant to Obama's worldview.
Obama studied carefully the anti-colonial activist and writer Frantz Fanon. He acknowledges Fanon in `Dreams from My Father' numerous times.
Acording to D'Souza, Fanon should be credited to placing the mask on Obama, translating the "anti-colonial ideas into the language and imagery of modern American politics." D'Souza also says Obama added "his own vision and strategy".
Fanon wrote: "The wealth of the imperial countries is our wealth too... For in a very concrete way Europe has stuffed herself inordinately with the gold and raw materials of the colonial countries... Europe is literally a creation of the Third Word." The awareness, Fanon concludes, produces a double realization: the realization by the colonized people that it is their due and the realization by the capitalist powers that they must pay."
Obama befriended the radical Bill Ayers. Ayers wrote about his own take: "We had been insistent in our anti-Americanism, our opposition to a national story stained with conquest and slavery and attempted genocide." and "What kind of a system is it that allows the U.S. to seize the destinies of the Vietnamese people?" D'Souza says: "The Vietnam war was America's attempt to stop communism. But that is not how Bill Ayers and Ho Chi Minh saw it. For Ho and Bill, this was an anti-colonial struggle." Bill Ayers was an anti-colonial friend of Obama.
Alinsky advocated for the activist to join the middle class, because they have the power; to adopt their style and attitude, to dress like them, to act like them, to smile a lot because smiles are a great way to disguise rage and contempt. This way, the activist will build a rapport with ordinary Americans and mobilize them on behalf of radical causes.
D'Souza continues: "The critique of neocolonialism espoused by Obama's father operates on the conviction that Western banks, investment houses, insurance companies, oil and mineral companies, and - we can add for good measure - the automobile and the pharmaceutical industries, are owned and operated by rich fat cats. This group - let's call it the overclass - achieves its position by exploiting the weak and the poor. As he argued in his paper, Obama Sr. sought to use the power of the state to bring down this overclass." Meaning subduing neocolonial institutions Obama blocks offshore drilling for oil by United States.
Obama underwrites offshore drilling for oil.... by Brazil with loans of 2 billion dollars, and also for Mexico. And not a drop of that oil will get to U.S.
D'Souza insists that to Obama the issue is not protecting the environment, its about shifting the balance of energy consumption away from the West and toward the developing world.
Through Cap and Trade Obama will curb America's energy production and consumption.
China is the world's no.1 leading producer of carbon dioxide. China accounted for most of the growth in the year's global greenhouse emissions. India was next. Neither of them care about reducing emissions. The agreement coming out of the UN Summit proposed that the West fork over 100 Billion dollars do developing countries. Obama administration supports this measure!
During his time in the Senate Obama sponsored the Global Poverty Act, that would have comited United States to spending over 800 Billion Dollars over a decade to eradicate poverty in the Third World. D'Souza believes Obama wants to make the rich nations poorer and the poor nations richer and that America and the West are using too much of the Earth resources. D'Souza point out that this is a huge theme with Obama; he never stops talking about it.
For almost 10 years America has been fighting the `war on terrorism'. President Obama has called an end to this. D'Souza believes Obama is conducting a war against what he considers to be the biggest rogue state of all: United States of America.
In The Audacity of Hope, Obama faults America for its role in supporting the repressive Suharto regime in Indonesia.
D'Souza points out that similar accusations come from Chavez in Venezuela, Russia, Zimbabwe, North Korea and the Islamic nations and that Obama's answer is to curtail America's power and influence.
Dinesh D'Souza gives two cheers (not three, because of the suffering inflicted) for colonialism. The British left a legacy previously alien in traditional Indian culture: democracy, rule of law, human rights, self-determination, individualism, people with better taste, opinions, morals and intellect, a capacity for better government, a free press, modern universities and research laboratories. Thanks to the Brits, English is D'Souza first language and he wrote this great book and many great other books before it.
D'Souza points out there is only one continent that missed out on the growth curve: Africa - with the exception of South Africa. The rest of Africa, as UN Secretary General Kofi Annan put it, is a "cocktail of disasters", a lethal combo of poverty, repression, civil war, and AIDS.
D'Souza makes the point: the suffering of Africa is not due to Colonialism. As D'Souza points it out, Africa was colonized for little more than half a century, or a single lifetime. He says that a strong case can be made that Africa's problem isn't colonialism but too little colonialism.
D'Souza adds that the British did stop slavery in Africa, reduced if not prevented tribal conflict, and constructed a railway network through Uganda and Kenya - built, by the way, by importing 30,000 "coolies" from India. Obama knows about this because he writes about it, and D'Souza knows because his great grandfather was one of those coolies.
But too few Africans were provided with decent jobs or decent education. D'Souza says the Western powers were hampered in their attention to the needs of two world wars and a Great Depression. D'Souza's incredible conclusion: "colonization in Africa was a tragedy - but it might not have been had colonization lasted longer, as it did in India."
For most part Africa rejected the route of the free market capitalism and adopted a route of centralized planning and African socialism. Overall, Africa rejected pro-capitalist Jomo Kanyatta's approach in favor of the socialist approach of Barack Obama Sr. Dictators like Mobutu in Zaire, Idi Amin in Uganda, Banda in Malawi, Mugabe in Zimbabwe are "thugs who learned the language of anti-colonialism and used it as a pretext to confiscate property and appropriate it for themselves and their cronies." "These men continued for decades to blame the failure of their societies on the legacy of colonialism, freeing them from the responsibility of raising the people's standard of living.
D'Souza quotes Obama in his speech in Ghana: "Africa gives off less greenhouse gas than any other part of the world, but it is the most threatened by climate change." Obama pledged "substantial increases in our foreign assistance", including technical assistance for crop production. Falling back into campaign mode, Obama concluded "Yes we can! Thank you very much."
D'Souza concludes that "anti-colonialism is dead; no one in today's world cares...Read more›The Roots of Obama's Rage Overview

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The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America Review

The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America
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The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America ReviewInteresting and troubling,from this book it becomes clear that Obama is not what he seems.Checked the cross reference included in some parts of the book and it's all there.The MSM really did a job covering for this guy.
After reading this book,if for any reason,by hook or by crook,Obama is elected again in 2012,it's difficult to see how America would withstand such further traumatic change.In a second term he would become even more radical,cap and trade, Value added Tax and of course an amnesty for illegal immigrants.The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America Overview

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No He Can't: How Barack Obama Is Dismantling Hope and Change Review

No He Can't: How Barack Obama Is Dismantling Hope and Change
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No He Can't: How Barack Obama Is Dismantling Hope and Change ReviewI ordered this book from the Amazon Vine program, thinking it would provide, more background, information on B.H. Obama while in office. Of the former, I had obtained much from my extensive pre-election reading of articles and books such as Case Against Barack Obama and Obama Nation, which I still recommend.
Unfortunately, this book did not deliver the quality information I'd expected, however. I agree with Matthew Morgan, that while the volume is well-written, it offers scant referencing, a major issue.
Another problem: McCullough rehashes articles he wrote before Obama attained the presidency. He claims to have been one of the first journalists to predict Obama's election, and one of the first to criticize him. All of that is news to me. If true, however, it makes little difference, as the book offers no particular substance for readers who prefer to focus on facts, as opposed to opinions.
Non-fiction of any kind is fairly useless without careful footnotes and referencing, and this book has none of the former and precious few of the latter in chapter bibliographies. I did not need to acquire it to find a list of further reading material. What readers want to know is where each bit of information, such as there is, originated. That's not here.
I'm afraid this book offers nothing so much as a squandered opportunity to expose the most important facts that the mainstream press seems to intentionally avoid reporting at all costs.
If I could give the book three and a half stars, I would, only thanks to McCullough's crisp and chatty writing style. But what the book has in pizzazz does not make up for its dearth of data or substantiation.No He Can't: How Barack Obama Is Dismantling Hope and Change Overview

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Democracy Denied: How Obama is Ignoring You and Bypassing Congress to Radically Transform America - and How to Stop Him Review

Democracy Denied: How Obama is Ignoring You and Bypassing Congress to Radically Transform America - and How to Stop Him
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Democracy Denied: How Obama is Ignoring You and Bypassing Congress to Radically Transform America - and How to Stop Him ReviewPhil Kerpen has a warning for you, America. He wants to alert you to the fact that Barack Obama is using his powers to create regulations to undermine Congress, ignore voters, and "radically transform America." But Kerpen also has some good news. There's a way to stop this left-wing assault on our country. You can find out what that something is in his new book, (...) How Obama is Ignoring You and Bypassing Congress to Radically Transform America -- and How to Stop Him.
Kerpen has an uphill battle to beat back the war that has been launched against America. Why? Because the way our country is being torn down is happening in the most subtle way possible. Worse, it is all being done with such ersatz legality, a legitimacy so seemingly ironclad, that most Americans are completely unaware of what is happening. And when they are aware of it they imagine there is nothing wrong with it all.
That and the way this destruction is happening is not the sort of glamorous outrage that makes for exciting news coverage. In fact, it's quite dull. After all, the way the country is being undermined is through long-winded, legalese-filled, opaque regulatory changes. Red tape. Underhanded, jargon-heavy rules, quietly implemented without fanfare or the light of day revealing them for that matter.
Like I said, Kerpen has an uphill battle not only to alert Americans to what is happening right under their very noses, but to excite them enough to do something about it.
Through the bulk of his book Kerpen outlines the way that Americanness is being smothered in paper with the thousands of pages of new regulations that Obama is weekly churning out from his administration.
Kerpen details the way the Obama administration, guided by a hardcore, left-wing ideology, is attempting to take control of the Internet, is trying to eliminate private property rights, is destroying the business sector in favor of big labor unionization, is using the outsized fear of global warming to ramp up a socialist-styled enlargement of government control on all fronts from the EPA to our energy sector, and more. In each case, Kerpen notes that this regulatory overreach is directly contrary to our American character and our core ideals.
Kerpen also notes that this bacchanalia of regulations and the subsequent growth of the power of the president was even something that the left was exercised about during the eight years of the George W. Bush era. Unfortunately for the veracity of the left, all their concerns of an un-American growth of executive power have been wholly forgotten merely because they like the direction of the obscene overreach implemented by Obama. No end of hypocrisy there, eh?
The final chapter gives us a roadmap to pruning these obscene powers stolen from the Congress and the people by this most leftist president in American history. But, it too has a warning. Just "doing the right thing" and voting is not enough. We must not only vote for representatives that will endeavor to take back their power to legislate from an out of control executive branch, we must follow up and force these elected officials to follow through on the charge we've handed them.
Seems like a good idea to me.
If you are interested in the way the left -- and even some on the far right -- have used the presidency to steal power from we the people and our elected representatives, get this book and read it. Then go forth and make a change we really can believe in.
Democracy Denied: How Obama is Ignoring You and Bypassing Congress to Radically Transform America - and How to Stop Him Overview

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The Subprime Virus: Reckless Credit, Regulatory Failure, and Next Steps Review

The Subprime Virus: Reckless Credit, Regulatory Failure, and Next Steps
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The Subprime Virus: Reckless Credit, Regulatory Failure, and Next Steps ReviewI'm only one third of the way through the book, but this eminently readable and comprehensive compilation of errors and events that got the US (and the world) into this serious financial meltdown is impressive. The accounts of the Bush and Obama administrations' efforts to quell the collapse is fascinating. You feel that you are living the history, standing at the edge of the abyss. Hardly a book that I expect from two distinguished law professors! It's readable, highly informative and fascinating.

This book is neither an economic tome nor a populist screed. Any reasonably open-minded citizen will gain perspective, insight and a balanced understanding of what went wrong and why.
If the "what to do about it" portion of the book is similarly powerful, it should already be a classic.The Subprime Virus: Reckless Credit, Regulatory Failure, and Next Steps Overview

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