Book Club Discussion: A Promised Land by Barack Obama

[ufcasey]

It's the last Wednesday of the month (and of the year!), so it's time for our monthly book club discussion. This month's book is A Promised Land by Barack Obama.

As always, feel free to answer any, all, or none of the questions or just put your general thoughts about the book.

Optional questions (found from the internet):
1. Was there anything you found surprising in this book, that you didn't know at the time when the events happened?
2. How does Barack's view of running for President differ from Michelle's view in her book (if you have read it)?
3. How do you think he handled writing about his opponents (John McCain, Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, etc.)?
4. Were there parts of (this section of) his presidency that you expected to read about, that was not in the book?
5. What was your biggest takeaway from this book?

[ufcasey]

Tagging people who might have read this:
lilac05, mrspez07, aurora, rainbowchip

[aurora]

Wow, this day snuck up on me!

I listened to the audiobook of this one early in the year (maybe Jan or Feb?). I remember liking it, though it was very long. I don't usually speed up books, but because of my library due date I listened to it at 1.25x, which actually worked out fine due to Obama's slow cadence.

I don't remember all of the details but I do remember being inspired again and again by his sense that hope is still possible even when we have to take steps backwards. I am inclined to pessimism by nature so this really meant something to me: it's OK to be sad about setbacks while still believing we can move forward.

I also learned some things about his personal history that I hadn't known (e.g., details of his life in Hawaii).

[sakoro]

I’m about halfway through the book. I found his other books very readable but this one included a lot of nitty-gritty policy details for the historians.

I was struck by how long ago 2008 seems. Also his optimism in taking a centrist path and his shock at how the rank and file republicans were bullied by Mitch McConnell and other leaders to not even pretend to cooperate with Democrats. I was not a fan to begin with, but Mitch comes across as truly diabolical.

One interesting titbit was that Obama spent his sophomore- senior years at Columbia holed up in his dorm room reading and studying and chose not to have much of a social life. It was like he went through an extreme introvert stage and then came out of it with a more integrated black identity and was able to become a social activist and leader.

I’ll come back and add more later.

For Hillary, he seems to see her as incredibly bright but with some personality flaws that make it hard for her to connect to ordinary voters (some of it is misogyny but some of it is just personality). He doesn’t seem to like or trust the people in Bill Clinton’s orbit. He thinks Sarah Palin is a simplistic idiot. None of this was shocking.