A Promised Land, Barack Obama, 2020

The first part of Barack Obama's presidential memoir stands out as proof of Obama's writing prowess. To me the book came across more as a work by a historian rather than a personal memoir. His first-hand accounts of interacting with leaders at international conferences and dealing in the Congress are compelling stories exposing his novelist streak, but his explanation of major historical issues such as the lead-up to the Financial Crisis or the Arab Spring and the treatment of his term in office, the majority of the work, reveal his academic chops. Personally I would love to see Obama write more full-fledged histories on topics he either experienced or researches - I believe he could have an effective and important career as a popular historian.

I have seen a variety of evaluations of the Obama presidency from the left and from the right. Some leftists paint Obama as a neoliberal center-right military interventionist, and some rightists race-baited and painted Obama as a socialist-muslim threat to American values. More realistically, there have been countervailing political currents underneath Obama's years on the stage that obscure his future legacy. The Democratic party has seen a surging Progressive wing that may assert Obama's achievements are incrementalist (such as Obamacare compared to Medicare-for-all). Senatorial etiquette is said to have radically shifted from statesmen's compromise to partisan brinkmanship during and after the Obama years, and may cause his governing style and pursuit of bipartisanship to appear naive. Contemporary narratives of increasing quality of life and improving racial justice have darkened - the eye that evaluates Obama will be see things differently from the eye that experienced his presidency first-hand. Obama's legacy and that of his successor are now intricately linked, and so will be that of Obama's former Vice-President and future President, Joe Biden, to both of them. At the outset of Obama's term, I expect people viewed Obama in relation to Bush who was unreachably unpopular and whose policies Obama ran against across the board. These shifts in perception remind us that history is alive.

As such, it is clear that Obama is attempting to influence his evaluation in light of so many developments. He retrospectively foreshadows the future rise of Trumpism by showing some cultural threads that would later coalesce into a clear program (such as Sarah Palin, the Tea Party, etc). He discusses bipartisanship at length and discusses his efforts to normalize and emphasize process within the executive and legislative branches rather than just accomplishments. I believe he charts out a case for himself as a authentic liberal and progressive, to ward off critiques from the left, and also a practical deal-maker focused on governing, addressing the center. Obama does frequently lament what he could not accomplish, but clearly is signaling to the future reader who is looking back from a changed world. One ringing example is a repeated mention of pandemic prevention preparation, clearly intended to impress locked-in or quarantined readers in 2020 and 2021.

I was shocked by Obama's description of the Bush administration's inept handling of the opening days of Financial Crisis as well as McCain's clear lack of comfort with these economic issues. It seemed that Hank Paulson treated Obama as president for months before he was elected. Obama's presidency is probably a success just for what it prevented (economic ruin), without considering any realized achievements.

Obama as an individual resonates for me. He seems a reflective person, both at the time and after the fact. I look forward to reading his second part to the memoir.