Barack Obama

I was surprised at the excellent writing style, full of descriptions and dialogue which made it engaging, and reflections on his experiences which helped us see how they affected him. "There was always a community there if you dug deeply enough...There was poetry as well--a luminous world always present beneath the surface."(p.190-1) [return]Even though he has traveled and lived in many places, a good summary might be that "on this earth one place is not so different from another...one moment carries within it all that's gone on before." (p.437)[return]Covering Obama's early life, we can see the ways in which his experiences were not typical for most Black Americans (life in Indonesia and Hawaii) and the ways in which his inner doubts and questions might be typical for black men in America (his attempts to find his roots and to define himself). Even as he learns and begins to gain a sense of himself, "life was neither tidy nor static, and that ...hard choices would always remain." (p.377)[return]His writing gives us insight into what motivated him to run for office. One prescient phrase, quoting a poet mentor "you'll start believing what they tell you about equal opportunity and the American way...Until you want to actually start running things, and then they'll yank on your chain and let you know that you may be a well-trained, well-paid n..., but you're a n... just the same." (p.97).[return]And even in Kenya, meeting his father's family, there are still questions: "As if the map that might have once measured the direction and force of our love, the code that would unlock our blessings, had been lost long ago, buried with the ancestors beneath a silent earth." (p.331) Or this advice from his aunt: "You have to draw the line somewhere. If everyone is family, no one is family." (p.337) He shares a conversation with a Kenyan historian, about the changes due to European influence and trying to maintain an African identity, who admits to the personal bottom line of "I'm less interested in a daughter who's authentically African than one who is authentically herself." (p.435).[return]This would be a good book for any American to read even if Obama had never run for president.… (more)

Este ha sido una de las raras ocasiones en las que he "leido" un libro con un audiobook. Y lo he hecho porque este libro esta narrado por Obama y puedo escuchar a este hombre por horas y horas.

Tener informacion de primera mano de un ex-presidente es maravilloso, sobre todo su modo de pensar cuando se enfrenta a diversas crisis.
Pero hay un par de cosas que no me acaban de gustar demasiado, primero es la cantidad de nombres que no me suenan de nada, gente que le ayudo a ganar las elecciones o que trabajaban en posiciones mas o menos desconocidas en la casa blanca.

Pero sobre todo lo que menos me ha gustado es que en la mayoria de los casos se atribuye a el o a su equipo la decision adecuada y la mejor implementacion posible. Y esto me parece demasiado increible, para cuando iba por la mitad del libro ya casi me hacia gracia cuando presenta un problema, su solucion y la presenta como la unica y mejor alternativa.
Entiendo que pareciera la mejor alternativa, pero dudo que despues de ver los sucesos, no te plantearas si lo fue o no.

La otra cosa curiosa es como ignora algunas de las contradicciones en las que tuvo que jugar. Por ejemplo, en una parte del libro habla de un viaje a Arabia Saudi y como el regimen alli es retrogrado y denigrante para las mujeres, como le intentaron comprar y como empujan a la creacion de terrorismo contra EEUU y otros paises. Y aun asi, muy colegas con ellos, fiesta juntos, risas y tal.





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Autobiographies, especially those of politicians, should be taken with a large dollop of salt and this one is probably no different at least in parts. Even accounting for this, this is a riveting account of Obama's meteoric career that came to national prominence with that DNC speech and ended up with him in the White house a mere 4 years later. The book is an inside look of legislative sausages being made, the myriad indignities and petty squabbles that politicians trade in and finally, those rare good days when something substantive get done. Obama's pride and belief in the notion of America and her ideals comes through again and again though refreshingly, it never tips over to blind jingoism that is so common in politics across the world these days. He is quick to point out occasions when the reality of his presidency failed to approach these lofty ideals (supporting Bahrain's regime during the Arab Spring for example) and is honest about recognizing the same shortcomings and flaws in American society that America so often condemns the world for (drawing parallels between the BJP and the Tea Party, for instance). His uncommon decency is also on display here. A lesser man would have made a much bigger deal of the killing of Osama bin Laden, the one achievement of his presidency that not even his worst detractors can take the shine off of. Instead, he is almost melancholic about it and confides that the passing of the ACA gave him much more pleasure.

There are some skeletons in the closet (the drone program, Democratic losses in the mid-term elections) that this book briefly touches upon but deftly skips past. Perhaps the second book would cover some of these but I am afraid that Trump would suck up all the oxygen in that one (as is his wont in anything he appears in). A more dispassionate analysis of Obama's presidency would have to account for these as well but one can't but help think that the world would be a much better place if more politicians were like him.… (more)