A Promised Land

Part 3, “Renegade,” describes the transition and Obama’s first few months in office. Although Obama signed a variety of executive orders in his first days as POTUS, three problems dominated his attention: the deepening economic crisis and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama addressed these problems without losing sight of his overarching goal, that is, to build a better country. In Chapter 12, for instance, he describes wanting to create a fairer, more egalitarian nation. To this end, he prioritized those who faced particular hardships for government help. Part of his economic recovery plan included helping Americans who were struggling to pay their mortgages. He and his team created two programs: HAMP reduced monthly mortgage payments and HARP helped borrowers refinance their loans at lower interest rates, even if their homes were underwater. Deciding who would receive government help proved to be a challenge. Questions of fairness arose. Republicans accused Obama of promoting bad behavior by bailing out spendthrifts and lazy people. For Obama, however, the blame for the housing crisis did not lie primarily with homeowners, but rather, with the banks and Wall Street. He reasoned that if the wealthy benefited from government bailouts, so too should the middle class. 

Obama’s decision-making process stands out as methodical and collaborative but not without conflict. Internal debates within his foreign policy team reveal a generational divide, with older, experienced members of the national security team locking horns with younger members, including most of the NSC staff. The former prioritized stability: “For them, a responsible foreign policy meant continuity, predictability, and an unwillingness to stray too far from conventional wisdom” (311). By contrast, latter were willing to challenge the assumptions of the so-called Washington playbook on Middle East policy, the hardline stance towards Cuba, and the unwillingness to engage diplomatically with foes, among other issues. Younger staffers were respectful of their elders but also confident in the possibilities new ideas could afford: “They made no apologies for wanting to break from some of the constraints of the past in pursuit of something better” (312). Obama orchestrated these tensions by putting together a diverse foreign policy team, whose members helped him work through various scenarios using old and new ideas: “I imagined myself on the bridge of an aircraft carrier, certain that America needed to steer a new course but entirely dependent on a more seasoned and sometimes skeptical crew to execute that change” (312).

Collaboration is central to Obama’s leadership style. In addition to consulting with his economic team, for example, he invited two groups of outside economists, one left-leaning, the other conservative, to participate in discussions about the economic crisis. Obama characterizes his approach as one born out of necessity: “What I was quickly discovering about the presidency was that no problem that landed on my desk, foreign or domestic, had a clean, 100 percent solution. If it had, someone else down the chain of command would have solved it already. Instead, I was constantly dealing with probabilities” (294). His emphasis on collaboration allowed members of his team to claim ownership over White House decisions, which resulted in better execution and fewer leaks by disgruntled employees. Obama describes the peace of mind his decision-making process gave him in Chapter 12:

Chasing after the perfect solution led to paralysis. On the other hand, going with your gut too often meant letting preconceived notions or the path of least political resistance guide a decision—with cherry-picked facts used to justify it. But with a sound process—one in which I was able to empty out my ego and really listen, following the facts and logic as best I could and considering them alongside my goals and my principles—I realized I could make tough decisions and still sleep easy at night, knowing at a minimum that no one in my position, given the same information, could have made the decision any better (294).

No matter how sound Obama’s process was, however, some problems simply did not have satisfactory solutions. The AIG bonus scandal is a case in point. The insurance giant received $170 billion in TARP funds under Bush, and it needed more to stay afloat. Despite this massive government bailout, the company was spending $165 million in contractually obligated bonuses. To make matters worse, most of these bonuses were going to the division directly responsible for the company’s financial troubles. AIG’s CEO could not withhold these bonuses without risking employee lawsuits, which could result in payments three times the original amount. Obama wanted to step in, but his hands were tied because of a clawback provision in Bush’s TARP legislation, which prevented him from withholding government funds, even if they went to bonuses. In other words, some problems, like the AIG scandal, defied even the best decision-making process: “Sometimes it didn’t matter how good your process was. Sometimes you were just screwed, and the best you could do was have a stiff drink—and light up a cigarette” (295).

Like the previous sections, Part 3 provides insights into what it is like to be president. For example, Chapter 11 describes the adjustments Obama had to make during and after the transition. Key among these was the loss of privacy. The press was a constant presence inside and outside the White House, taking pictures of him playing basketball and on dates with Michelle. Obama gave the press access, with the stipulation that his daughters were off limits. Obama also had to adjust to the new demands on his time: “My daily schedule had suddenly become a behind-the-scenes tug-of-war between various staffers, agencies, and constituencies, each one wanting their causes highlighted or their issues addressed” (249). Obama recalls having to be schooled in some of the mundane aspects of being president, such as having a navy valet look after his clothes: “When in the evening I returned from the Oval Office and hung my (only lightly mussed!) suit in the closet […] Sam came up beside me and gently but firmly explained that it would be better if from now on I just left the care of my clothes up to him” (253). The fact that all the valets, chefs, and butlers were Black, Latino, or Asian American (and that all but one were men) served as a constant reminder that inequality was deeply engrained in the history of the country.

The formalities surrounding the presidency proved to be equally disconcerting for Obama. Members of Obama’s staff stood every time he entered the room, despite being told not to: “‘Sit down,’ I’d growl, telling my team that those kinds of formalities weren’t my style. They’d smile and nod—and then do the exact same thing the next time we met” (249). One of Obama’s biggest adjustments as president, however, was losing his first name: “There was the way my first name all but disappeared, used by nobody but Michelle, our families, and a few close friends, like Marty. Otherwise, it was ‘Yes, Mr. President’ and ‘No, Mr. President’” (249). To the Secret Service agents assigned to his detail, Obama was not Mr. President, but simply Renegade. They used his code name whenever they whispered into their wrist microphones to announce his movements. Renegade to Secondary Hold, for instance, was their way of saying that Obama was going to the bathroom.

Chapters 12 and 13 describe the daily routine of being president. The President’s Daily Briefing (PDB) was always first on Obama’s agenda. He then went to Oval to meet with members of the NSC and national intelligence staff, who provided a live version of the briefing, starting with the most urgent items. Meetings, phone calls, and special events followed, as well as occasional visits from Malia and Sasha. Obama paused for dinner with his family on days he wasn’t traveling, only to resume work after hours. He relished his ritual of putting his daughters to bed and returning to work: “For me, these were often the quietest and most productive hours of the day, a time when I could catch up on work and prepare myself for whatever was coming next, poring over the stacks of material my staff secretary sent up to the residence for my review” (268). Special events particularly dear to Obama included visiting wounded soldiers, who reminded him of the human dimension of war: “Each time I entered a room, each time I shook a hand, I could not ignore how incredibly young most of these service members were, many of them barely out of high school. I couldn’t help but notice the rims of anguish around the eyes of the parents, who themselves were often younger than me” (324). Not coincidentally, Obama discusses these visits in Chapter 13, which focuses on national security, an one issue that links all presidents, Republican and Democrat.