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Barack Obama

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Barack Obama

This Improbable Quest

Paradigm,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Learn what makes Barack Obama a skilled politician. Could he become president despite the doubts and criticism?

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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Controversial
  • Eye Opening
  • Background

Recommendation

This blatantly positive profile of presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama presents the man, his positions and specific responses to the criticisms against him. Extensive direct quotes from the candidate himself plus 30 pages of footnotes buttress the book’s powerful, if partisan, presentation. John K. Wilson, a former student of Obama’s, omits some important things, however, it is only fair to note that some hot campaign topics (such as Reverend Wright) emerged after the book’s publication. Wilson also makes a few odd comments (for instance, drawing a link between low black unemployment and the high incarceration rate under Bill Clinton). Still, he sets forth a compelling case for Obama and provides observations about the Senator’s formative years, accomplishments and policies. He offers some good insights, for example, he discusses the role cynicism plays in politics and the role of white guilt. While Wilson sometimes gets carried away with his support of the candidate, he notes that both the far right and the far left have attacked Obama, so he must be doing something correctly. getAbstract recommends this to voters who want the story (albeit somewhat sunny) behind the candidate and to Obama supporters seeking more information about their presidential hopeful.

Summary

Avoiding Slash-and-Burn Politics

Barack Hussein Obama announced his presidential candidacy on February 10, 2007, in Springfield, Illinois. Stressing the need for serious change and his membership in a “different generation,” Obama, 45, said the U.S. had suffered “small-minded,” “24-hour, slash-and-burn” politics, which prevented progress and hurt the country.

Born in 1961, Obama is the first post-Baby-Boom politician to run for national office. He has a strong connection with Generation-X voters. Many college students remember only President Bush senior and junior, and Bill Clinton. To them, Ronald Reagan is a figure from the distant past. Obama’s fresh ideas and youth appeal to this new generation of American voters. Due to his age, Obama knows the importance and possibilities of the tumultuous ’60s, along with their limitations, for example why Baby Boom politicians Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were not forthcoming about their drug use and avoidance of military service in Vietnam.

Obama often discusses the power of uniting people, and rejects the divisions caused by polarized disagreements between liberals and conservatives. Hoping to minimize that...

About the Author

John K. Wilson is the author of Patriotic Correctness, How the Left Can Win With Arguments and Influence People, A Tactical Manual for Pragmatic Progressives, Newt Gingrich, and Myth of Political Correctness.

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