The Promise: President Obama, Year One

Author's Note ix\ Preface xv\ Prologue 1\ 1 Obama Takes Charge 3\ 2 White House-in-Waiting 15\ 3 Grant Park 34\ 4 The Cabinet Maker 45\ 5 Picking Hillary 67\ 6 Instant President 77\ 7 Historic Inauguration 100\ 8 Sea Legs 110\ 9 Zen Temperament 138\ 10 Rahmbo 159\ 11 The Shovel Brigade 173\ 12 Larry and Tim 189\ 13 The Un-Bubba 209\ 14 Global Reset 224\ 15 Tyrannosaurus Rx 244\ 16 Professor-in-Chief 267\ 17 Off-hours 291\ 18 The Skinny Guy and the Fat Cats 309\ 19 Modus Obama 325\ 20 "Don't Blow It!" 347\ 21 Chaos-istan 363\ 22 The Perfect and the Good 395\ 23 Achievements 422\ Epilogue: 2010 435\ Acknowledgments 452\ Note on Sources 455\ Notes 457\ Index 463

\ Publishers WeeklyAlter's sharply observed narrative follows Obama and his dedicated staff through a difficult, turbulent, and mostly successful first year in office. He reads his book in pedestrian fashion, adding little in the way of color or emphasis. Still, Alter takes us through the material ably enough, and the recording's interest is boosted significantly by an interview appended to the end of the book with President Obama from late 2009. The president is calm and assured in making a case for his first year in office, but it is particularly illuminating to hear Alter subtly prod Obama into considering his successes--and his missteps. A Simon & Schuster hardcover. (May)\ \ \ \ \ Library JournalNewsweek columnist/biographer Alter (The Defining Moment) drew on some extraordinary access to White House personnel to create this exhaustive biography seeking to present a physical, psychological, and spiritual definition of a man who is difficult to define. Aside from some spiteful digs at John McCain and Bill Clinton, he focuses on our current President as he tackles two wars, an imploding economy, wary foreign powers, crippling unemployment, congressional recalcitrance, the quicksand of health care, and two daughters who remind him of his promise to buy them a dog. Alter himself reads, in a steady, unemotional voice not belying his enthusiasm for his subject. An exemplary work of "instant history" certain to become one of the primary reference books on our President. [Includes a bonus interview with Obama; the New York Times best-selling S. & S. hc was recommended "to serious readers of current affairs and as a complement to [David] Remnick's [The Bridge]," LJ 6/1/10.—Ed.]—Joseph L. Carlson, Vandenberg Air Force Base Lib., Lompoc, CA\ \ \ Library JournalAlter's book takes up where David Remnick's The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama ends, closely scrutinizing all aspects of the Obama administration's first year. For this "journalistic history," Alter (senior editor, Newsweek; The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope) made use of over 200 interviews he conducted with legislators, staff, and the President himself. He assesses how successfully Obama has lived up to his own and the public's high expectations. Alter devotes several chapters to how the President and his economic point men, secretary of the treasury Timothy Geithner and director of the National Economic Council Lawrence Summers, framed domestic policy relating to the stimulus, the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), bailouts, and job creation. The book's highlights include the health-care debate and details about how the President spends his downtime. Ultimately, Alter believes that Obama has received less credit than he deserves for saving the country from another depression, but he faults Obama for not using the bully pulpit effectively to connect with a fearful public and evade conservative criticism and the right-wing media. VERDICT Although the details about economic policies may overwhelm the general reader, this thorough account will appeal to serious readers of current affairs and as a complement to Remnick's book.—Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA\ \ \ \ \ Kirkus ReviewsNewsweek senior editor Alter (The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope, 2006, etc.) turns in a freshman-year report card for the sitting president, with mixed but generally good grades. Obama is acing civics, to be sure, but he's having difficulty with some of the schoolyard bullies. A case in point, and one that occupies much of the author's account, is the battle for health-care reform. The book closes before the recent congressional squeaker passing bills in the House and Senate, but the lesson remains the same. The president took terrific pains to involve the Republicans in the enterprise, and the Republicans responded by kicking sand in his face. At countless points during its life, health-care reform seemed dead in the water, but it was helped at the last moment by an incredibly callous move on the part of a California Blue Cross enterprise, which "announced a 39 percent rate hike in the middle of the debate." Re-energized, Obama spent much of March 2010 mustering his forces and applying pressure so he could get the reform package passed-putting his presidency, Alter notes, as well as the future of the Democratic Party, in jeopardy. Looking into the president's past, the author portrays Obama as a fighter who sometimes gives the impression that he would rather be doing something else, a peacemaker who isn't afraid to pressure friends and enemies alike to achieve the larger good, but also as a man who thinks things through well in advance. One of the newsworthy moments comes early in the narrative, with Obama recruiting Hillary Clinton for his Cabinet even as the primaries were still in heated contention. Alter is admiring but not uncritical, rejecting the too-much/too-soon view of some commentators while noting a few missteps. Politics junkies will find this rewarding, particularly in Alter's account of the inner workings of the White House and Capitol Hill. Agent: Amanda Urban/ICM\ \ \ \ \ Michiko KakutaniWith relentless 24/7 media coverage of President Obama and a floodlet of books about him, the reader might well ask: Why another study of him and his White House, when his presidency is less than a year and a half old? And yet…Jonathan Alter's book The Promise actually does give us a new perspective on the 44th president by providing a detailed look at his decision-making process on issues like health care and the Afghanistan war, and a keen sense of what it's like to work in his White House, day by day. It's an effective and often revealing approach reminiscent of Mr. Alter's 2006 book, The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope…and Richard Reeves's 1993 book, President Kennedy: Profile of Power…\ —The New York Times\ \ \ \ \ Matthew DallekJonathan Alter has delivered an exceptionally well-written account of President Obama's first year in office. Brimming with fresh and judicious ideas, his book fuses political analysis, subtle insights into the president's mind and policy debates into a fast-paced, crisis-filled story. The Promise, based on more than 200 interviews with Obama and his close friends and aides, provides an uncommonly candid look inside a somewhat walled-off White House.\ —The Washington Post\ \ \ \ \ Jacob HeilbrunnThe Promise offers an excellent opportunity to appraise Obama's initial efforts. Drawing on interviews with over 200 people, including the president and his top aides, Alter examines everything from the economic bailouts to the military surge in Afghanistan. Throughout, he seeks to avoid what he refers to as the "polemics of punditry." This endows his narrative with a lapidary tone that is mercifully free of the breathless sensationalism of recent campaign books…\ —The New York Times Book Review\ \ \ \ \ From the PublisherPraise for The Promise\ “Gives us a new perspective on the 44th president by providing a detailed look at his decision-making . . . and a keen sense of what it’s like to work in his White House. . . . Alter uses his considerable access to the president and his aides to give us an informed look at No. 44’s management style.”\ —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times\ “Jonathan Alter has delivered an exceptionally well-written account of President Obama's first year in office. Brimming with fresh and judicious ideas, his book fuses political analysis, subtle insights into the president's mind and policy debates into a fast-paced, crisis-filled story. "The Promise," based on more than 200 interviews with Obama and his close friends and aides, provides an uncommonly candid look inside a somewhat walled-off White House. . . . Alter's deeply reported and analytically arresting book takes Obama's story in subtler and more contradictory directions than it has gone before.”\ —Matthew Dallek, The Washington Post Book World\ “Jonathan Alter is the new Theodore H. White. . . .The first 12 months of an American presidency as nonfiction melodrama. The Promise is not a campaign rehash, but a well-informed chronicle, sometimes sober, often raucous. Other books will be written about Barak Obama’s time in the White House; this snapshot fo 2009 will be a durable, well-thumbed guide.”\ —Martin F. Nolan, San Francisco Chronicle\ “A deeply reported, soberly appraised account of the president’s tumultuous first months in office. . . . The book is rich in the kinds of insider detail that make for an entertaining, as well as informative, reading experience. . . . When it comes to what we’ve all come to call the first draft of history, The Promise is more polished, and far more thoughtful, than most. For those attempting to get a fix on a fascinating but strangely elusive chief executive, it’s essential reading.”\ —Tim Rutten, Los Angeles Times\ “The Promise offers an excellent opportunity to appraise Obama’s initial efforts. Drawing on interviews with over 200 people, including the president and his top aides, Alter examines everything from the economic bailouts to the military surge in Afghanistan.”\ —Jacob Heilbrunn, The New York Times Book Review\ “An engaging, blow-by-blow account of the infancy of the Obama presidency. . . . Manna for political junkies. . . . Thoroughly researched . . . humanizes a figure considered periodically out-of-touch even by some of his admirers.”\ —Carlo Wolff, The Boston Globe\ “Jonathan Alter is a diligent political reporter with more sources than the Mississippi. . . . A calm, solid narrative of the people and events of the first Obama year. . . . The book offers a cascade of detail to please any follower of politics.” (This review also compares Alter to the great Walter Lippmann)\ —Zay N. Smith, Chicago Sun- Times\ “An impressively reported, myth-debunking and timely combination of journalism and history.”\ —Harry Hurt III, The New York Times (“Off the Shelf” Sunday column)\ \ \