The Promise: President Obama, Year One.

• Author: Fischer, Raymond L.
• Position: Book review

THE PROMISE President Obama, Year One

BY JONATHAN ALTER

SIMON & SCHUSTER, NEW YORK

2010, 440 PAGES, $28.00

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An analyst for NBC News and MSNBC and a highly respected national affairs columnist for Newsweek for 25 years, Jonathan Alter set out to cover "the important and compelling dimensions of the Obama story across a broad front," and he did this exceptionally well. He interviewed mere than 200 people outside of the government and many inside the Executive Branch and Congress, "the critical sources for the book." Alter occasionally spoke with Pres. Barack Obama off the record and interviewed him six times. With few exceptions, he interviewed anyone he sought in the White House including Vice Pres. Joseph Biden, and the President's four top aides: Rahm Emanuel, Valerie Jarrett, David Axelrod, and Pete Rouse. Although Obama adamantly forbid the "leaking of stories," apparently few, if any, people hesitated to "leak" to Alter.

Using direct observations of the people who best know Obama and his circle, the author addresses three questions. "What really happened?" clarifies the "backstory and hidden history" of one of the most difficult first years of any president in modern times. In answer to, "What is the president really like?," the author used his "access" to evaluate Obama's leadership style, temperament, and approaches to decisionmaking, as well as his own assessment of his first year. "How well did he really do?" reveals that Obama, facing two wars and a terrible economy, actually "took charge in Washington" before the election and made several important "presidential" decisions before his inauguration. In following Obama's progress from the primaries to the near present, Alter details Obama's influence in producing the underappreciated stimulus package, auto bailout, bank rescue and regulations, and health cars bill and analyzes Obama's attempts to communicate with the nonterrorist Muslim world, to advance nuclear nonproliferation, and to improve public awareness of the Administration's progress.

Obama's relationships with his Administration and appointees indicate his ability to work with people. Alter covers Obama's interation with Hillary Clinton (respect for each other), Joe Biden (a change from skepticism to respect and admiration), and, especially, chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel (the man to "go to")--he writes an entire chapter on "Rahmbo" Obama scrupulously selected "only the best" to fill offices; if anyone...