September 15, 2014
Todd, the newly minted Meet the Press host and former NBC chief White House correspondent, provides an even-handed, concise, and thorough account of President Obama’s first six years in the Oval Office. Todd frames his perspective with his choice of title—President Obama “came to Washington on the strength of being a stranger to the city and to the political elites, but it hasn’t always served him well.” He covers in great detail the die-hard obstructionism, exemplified in Sen. Mitch McConnell’s proclamation that his priority was to deny Obama a second term, that has characterized the Republican response to the president’s agenda. But Todd doesn’t believe that right-wing extremism lets the president off the hook, and offers example after example of times when his aloof approach to Congress hobbled his legislative initiatives. The book also compares the efficiency of Obama’s electoral campaigns to his subpar management in office. There isn’t a lot here that will be news to readers who follow politics closely—no Bob Woodward–type revelations—but the thoughtful organization of material make this as good a summation of Obama’s successes and failures, and the reasons for them, as anything else out there. Agent: Matthew Carnicelli, Carnicelli Literary Management.
December 1, 2013
Just on my radar; chief White House correspondent Todd reports on time spent with President Obama's inner circle to survey Obama's time in the White House
Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
November 1, 2012
Chief White House correspondent for NBC News, Todd considers Obama's first term, clarifying how he changed the political landscape and what "Obamism" really means. Of interest regardless.
Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
November 1, 2014
NBC News political director and Meet the Press moderator Todd (coauthor, How Barack Obama Won) offers a fascinating consideration of Barack Obama's presidency that investigates the conundrum of how he won the highest office in the nation while demonstrating contempt for the art of politics. Obama, writes Todd, has had more success when working with small groups than with Congress, especially after Republicans took charge of the House in 2010. It's no surprise that affordable health care and the stimulus package, Obama's most notable achievements, Todd claims, happened during Obama's first two years as president. The president's aloofness combined with challenges in foreign policy and the recession, both inherited from the Bush administration, and legislators of both parties who rendered bipartisanship obsolete, have ignited an out-of-control politics that will likely define the government for years to come. Todd concludes that Obama's legacy will not be set for years following his administration, yet the author does note some significant accomplishments including skilled use of the latest technologies in electioneering and carving out a Democratic majority with his appeal to minority groups. VERDICT This fast-moving account will entertain and inform readers of politics and modern history. See David Marranis's Barack Obama: The Story and David Remnick's The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama for personal insight into the president. [See Prepub Alert, 11/3/13.]--Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA
Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
October 15, 2014
A biography of the sitting president, who, by the author's account, would rather be anywhere but Washington, D.C.-or at least, doing anything but practicing politics as usual.Todd, newly anointed moderator of Meet the Press and a longtime NBC White House correspondent, wonders how so fortunate a campaigner as Barack Obama should "appear to be so bad at practicing the basics of politics in the back rooms of Washington, whether on Capitol Hill, on K Street, or at the Pentagon." A psychobiography may be needed to delve into the many reasons why Obama shuns confrontation, but in practical matters, Todd has it just about right: Obama is used to going it alone, doesn't mind the essential loneliness of being the leader of the free world and really means it when he decries the politics of division. All of these things make Obama, in Todd's overused formulation, a "stranger" in the clubby company town that is Washington. By Todd's reckoning, Obama may be his own worst enemy, given that in so many instances, his "struggles came from his focus on ends to the exclusion of productive means." Make nicer with John Boehner, in other words, and things might happen. Of course, as the author details, it doesn't help that the president's allies have their own agendas and that policy wonks within the White House can't agree on whether the economy is good or bad or in between. Still, the author offers a good explanation for why, positively or negatively, Obama seems so removed from both the fray and his own party, having resigned himself, at least in some measure, to the thought that "the Obama brand and the Democratic Party brand were distinct." Without much hard news that hasn't been written about elsewhere and not the equal of David Remnick's The Bridge (2010) in literary merit. Yet, both timely and pragmatic, this book is sure to attract attention.
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November 1, 2014
While he took the typical path of campaigning as a Washington outsider pledged to change the political status quo, President Obama's continued status as an outsider has cost him greatly during his presidency, asserts NBC White House correspondent Todd. From the early days of his administration, the reformer who came to Washington to change it ended up relying on the same old faces for his new administration, often showing a pragmatism that countered the image of idealism that had won him the election. But his disdain for politics and Republican determination to thwart his every effort soured Obama's relationships throughout Washington, making it harder for him to push his agenda. Todd chronicles the Obama presidency, from dealing with the financial crisis to fighting for health-care reform, from authorizing military aggression in Afghanistan to authorizing the killing of Osama bin Laden, detailing the complex of relationships between the president and his staff, Congress, and the Democratic Party. Drawing on hundreds of interviews, Todd offers an insightful look at Obama's presidency and its legacy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)