In 2012, Edward Klein wrote a book describing the Obama White House. The book's intent was to persuade the public that Barak Obama did not approach the job of President in a professional manner. The author highlights problems with the administrations handling of US Jewish relations, the Fast and Furious gun scandal and the Solyndra Solar company (Washington Post) loans.
Vallerie Jarret comes out looking the worst in this authors account. She acts as a gatekeeper to the President and limits the range of views that he receives from other people. Her advice is often wrong. She suggested that Obama visit Solyndra against the advice of the President's economic advisors as they correctly determined that the company did not appear to have the ability to repay their loan. She and Rahm Emmanuel reportedly did not get along. Rahm is described as a profane but pragmatic political advisor fitting in better with the Clinton Administration.
Michelle Obama is portrayed as a style conscious materialist person who pushes Obama to be successful. Her marriage to Barak has had its rocky points in the past and she keeps close tabs on Barak making sure he does not stray like JFK. She appears to have a tin ear with respect to public opinion when it comes to choosing to indulge in expensive vacation trips to Spain while the economy is in recession. She also has expensive and specific tastes in jewelry. According to the author she returned a $5000 piece of jewelry given to her as a birthday present by her husband for jewelry costing over $10,000. She also worked with Vallerie Jarret for the University of Chicago Hospital on a patient dumping scheme.
The book describes a falling out between Carolyn Kennedy and Barak Obama. It also notes a falling out between Oprah and Barak Obama. They have apparently patched things up as witnessed by events after the book was published - Carolyn's appointment as Japanese ambassador and Michelle's vacation at Oprah's Hawaiian estate.
The author talks to people that Obama has forgotten on the way to the top and faults him for not expressing gratitude or giving credit to them for his success. Jessie Jackson was very helpful to him letting him speak frequently at his Rainbow Push gatherings. This helped Mr. Obama to develop his skills as an orator.
The President's cabinet meetings are described as more of a one way conversation with the president giving a lecture and little give an take. Mr. Obama is presented as a confident, even tempered man who knows himself very well but does not have the same curiosity about the world as say Teddy Roosevelt. In the author's opinion Mr. Obama's governing style is most similar to Woodrow Wilson.
The foreign policy appears to be shaped by a focus on preventing genocide. In practice, this is a bit difficult to implement because one group will always end up on the losing end of a conflict.
In the end, people seem to approach life in one of two ways according to Bob Merritt in his book, When Life's Not Working. It's either easy hard or hard easy. Barak Obama worked very hard to develop his speaking style with considerable success. He appears to have put less effort into the mechanics of governing as evidenced by the rocky roll out of the Affordable Care Act.
The Billings Gazette now (7/3/2014) has retracted their 2008 endorsement of Mr. Obama. In the newspaper opinion piece they refer to Mr. Obama as "another in a line of presidents long on rhetoric and hopelessly short on action."
In conclusion: the book was a bit too partisan for me although it did offer helpful information about President Obama's approach to governing..
Edward Klein 2012 13 minutes
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