Rhodes, Ben "The World As It Is"

Rhodes, Ben "The World As It Is. Inside The Obama House" - 2018

A while ago, I bought three books that all related somehow to Barack Obama and his presidency:
"Promise Me, Dad" by Joe Biden, "Becoming" by Michelle Obama and this one by one of the most important staffers Barack Obama had in those days.

Ben Rhodes began his career in the White House as a speech writer in 2008, working for the presidential campaign.

He soon became even more important than that. As the Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications, he was the main contact with Cuba in the negations to reestablish diplomatic relations. He seems to have been one of the closest advisers the president had.

In the book we learn about all the success and the failures of the presidency, the problems they had with their opponents and their successor, all the lies we have heard so often. I always wondered how so many lies can be told about one single person and how many people are willing to believe it. Now I know.

But he also mentions their own problems, not just those caused by others. A very honest and thoughtful account of a decade of politics.

If you've enjoyed the TV series "West Wing", you will enjoy reading about the real place. Lots of details.

Ben Rhodes is a good writer which makes this book even more readable than many other non-fiction books.

He also wrote Obama's 2009 Cairo speech "A New Beginning" which I will be reading soon, as well, I hope (in his book "We are the Change We Seek").

What a shame this wonderful presidency had to come to an end. Better luck next time, I hope people will have learned from their mistakes.

From the back cover:

"This is a book about two people making the most important decisions in the world. One is Barack Obama. The other is Ben Rhodes.

The World As It Is tells the full story of what it means to work alongside a radical leader; of how idealism can confront reality and survive; of how the White House really functions; and of what it is to have a partnership, and ultimately a friendship, with a historic president.

A young writer and Washington outsider, Ben Rhodes was plucked from obscurity aged 29. Chosen for his original perspective and gift with language, his role was to help shape the nation’s hopes and sense of itself. For nearly ten years, Rhodes was at the centre of the Obama Administration - first as a speechwriter, then a policymaker, and finally a multi-purpose aide and close collaborator.

Rhodes puts us in the room at the most tense and poignant moments in recent history: starting every morning with Obama in the Daily Briefing; waiting out the bin Laden raid in the Situation Room; reaching a nuclear agreement with Iran; leading secret negotiations with the Cuban government; confronting the resurgence of nationalism that led to the election of Donald Trump.

This is the most vivid portrayal yet of Obama’s presidency. It is an essential record of the last decade. But it also shows us what it means to hold the pen, and to write the words that change our world."

Barack Obama received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2009 "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.".

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