The World as It Is

This is an unusually well written memoir, rich with personal insight. I never thought Obama was perfect. I disagreed with many of his policy decisions. However, he was a decent human who earned my admiration and respect against all odds. This memoir provides a fantastic opportunity to see the world through those eyes; and to glimpse how Obama saw and understood the people, places, societies and constructs of our world. Im not an overly sentimental person, but this book vividly reminds me of a time I long to see again, a country lead by decency, sensitivity and intelligence.

I finished this thoughtful, highly personal journal of the Obama presidency on the same day as the Trump debacle in Helsinki. What a poignant underlining of how the country was once led by careful, well-informed professionals with the long-term always in sight versus the impulsive, transactional mode that now inflicts daily stomach-churning to an emotionally worn out public. The world was not a quiet or un-dangerous place in the Obama years, but somehow the we mostly felt protected by intelligent leadership and a strong network of international partnerships.

Ben Rhodes’ account of his eight years working as one of Obama’s principal speech writers and senior advisors on foreign affairs moves more or less chronologically through the presidential term from landmark event to landmark event. Most of the events are detailed and explained with speeches and remarks prepared for delivery by Obama. Between events, author Rhodes invests the story with a great deal of his own hopes, doubts and self-accused failures as an aide with responsibility for providing informed counsel to the president; a husband in providing support and companionship to a new spouse; and as a person of humane principles who had to compromise too often in the face of political realities. His was not an easy job and amounted to a 24/7 preoccupation for more than eight years.

The book is highly readable with a text that seems authentic and short on self-serving excuses. In fact, Rhodes cites many instances when Obama chided him for lingering too long on political setbacks and miscalculations. Obama’s ability to put things in perspective comes across clearly in account after account.

What this book does not do is attempt to present a comprehensive look at everything that the administration undertook to accomplish during its eight years in power. This is about the foreign affairs agenda, pure and simple. The reader will have to wait for future books for inside information about the healthcare battle, civil rights, domestic political relationships, the mechanics of the two Obama campaigns, personal details about the Obama family, and myriad other key elements of the presidency.

Rhodes himself comes across as an intense, dedicated truth-teller, full of good intentions and self-questioning. And who wouldn’t be when working for and with a boss who displayed the same qualities squared?

A fine book. Easy to read, with infinite possibilities for onward discussion and debate.

I am an addict for these kinds of insider memoirs, so I can attest to the fact that this is one of the best written post White House memoir out there right now. The quality of writing makes this an easy read as you find yourself lost in the narrative, imagining all of the rooms, the meetings, discussions, and decisions of the Obama Administration. One of the things I most appreciated is that Rhodes stops his narrative of an event when it reaches the point in the story where it became widely known by the public and covered in the press. He vividly describes all the behind the scenes unknown conversations and details that lead up to the historic events that shape the parts of the story anyone who reads the New York Times already knows. Rhodes wrote his memoir like he wrote his speeches, he read other memoirs, figured out all the places where one skips over, and then chose not to waste the page space. What’s left is an engaging piece that neatly fill in the usually unknown parts of history. As the book came to a close it invoked the experience of the last months, weeks, days, and hours of the Obama presidency. It captured the feelings of pride, regret, and accomplishment, the longing for that feeling we had on that November night of 2008 that now brings both a smile and a sting for many of us.

I ordered the audio book and am absolutely flabbergasted by the imerssiveness of Ben Rhodes’ writing style. A piece from the New York Times articulates well the thoughts I have on Rhodes’ work:

“Ben Rhodes is a charming and humble guide through an unprecedented presidency. He writes well, even though he has a masters degree in creative writing, and he has a good eye. He observes that the national security adviser Jim Jones had a strange habit of giving advice to Obama while looking at someone else in the room. He describes furniture in Cuba that went out of style so long ago that itd be trendy in Brooklyn. And thats about as ferocious as he gets. There is no retributive backbiting of internal opponents like Hillary Clinton or Stanley McChrystal. In fact, Rhodes is far more candid about his own foibles. He drinks hard liquor, to the point of an occasional hangover. He smokes, furtively. He eats Chinese takeout, to excess. And he grows. He never quite loses his idealism; in a crass political era, he impressively avoids becoming a cynic. As a result, his achievement is rare for a political memoir: He has written a humane and honorable book.”

Ben Rhodes has written a fly on the wall memoir of his time as President Obamas trusted national security aide, speech writer and ultimately friend. Rhodes started at the bottom and truly rose through the hierarchy to become an Oval Office habitu. It is a detailed and highly compelling through the life, times and issues of the Obama years. It also gives an up close and vivid portrait of just what its like to be in that bubble, including rides in The Beast Presidential limo and of course Air Force One. I found it thoroughly enjoyable and revealing, and very well written. It is also sad for those like me who long for and miss a person like Obama as commander in-chief. It does however encourage you to get out and vote if you disagree with the attack on and unwinding of those important Obama legacies.

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