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L ‘The election of Barack Obama, on November 4, 2008, was interpreted, in the United States and in the world, as the beginning of a new era: the United States threw a history of prejudices and resentments behind and entered the era of society. multiethnic. Not too bitter conflict with the Conservatives, as Senator John McCain, the defeated Republican opponent, immediately congratulated the winner saying he was willing to cooperate. It didn’t happen that way. In fact, the election of a black president had the opposite effect on the American right, an almost anaphylactic shock: “My mere presence in the White House triggered a deep wave of panic, the feeling that the natural order of things had been demolished. ”This is one of the most painful and dramatic passages in A promised land, the first volume of Obama’s presidential memoirs to be published worldwide on Tuesday, November 17 (in Italy it is published by Garzanti).
The narrative of the former president – full of political reflections but also human notations, from the impact of the White House on the heritage of the marriage with Michelle to the nostalgia for the unrepeatable moments lived with Sacha and Malia in their adolescence – goes from the beginning of his political career. to the elimination of Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011. We will find the considerations on the four years of the Trump administration in the next volume, but already here Barack analyzes the diabolical media capacity of The Donald, his intuition, and confesses that wrong, underestimate it.
The exits of the then billionaire real estate developer and TV star of The newbie they were seen in the White House as antics. From the anticipations of the book published these days by the American press it is clear that Obama only gradually realized that Trump’s continued presence in the media, the impudence with which he said false things or resorted to verbal excesses were simply the extreme version of the government’s attempts. Republicans to sow anxiety over the appointment of a black president: a sentiment “that had moved from the fringes of the Conservative Party to its core, an emotional, almost visceral reaction to my presidency, a phenomenon that had nothing to do with differences political and ideological “between right and left. Obama, who once ridiculed Trump’s incredible attempts to deny the legitimacy of his election by creating the legend of a Barack born outside the United States, now recognizes that the panic on the right over the election of a black man “is exactly that. . which Trump immediately sensed when he began to speak of my presidency as illegitimate. His was an elixir offered to millions of Americans scared by the black man in the White House. “
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The new republicans
Rather than Trump’s “anomaly,” Obama’s attention is focused on the transformation of an increasingly radical Republican party that hampered his work as president in every way, including through House leaders Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, who should have been the men of dialogue. The first signs came even before his election, with the moderate John McCain choosing the radical Sarah Palin for his 2008 presidential campaign ballot: “With Palin the evil spirits who had remained on the fringes of the modern Republican party – xenophobia, hostility in confrontations with intellectuals, paranoid conspiracy theories, dislike for African Americans and Hispanics, they ended up center stage. Obama wonders if McCain would have chosen Palin if he had known that “his spectacular rise would serve as a springboard for new politicians, sliding the center of his party and national politics in directions that he himself detests. “And he concludes that his 2008 opponent,” a man who put the interests of his country before everything, having the possibility of turning back, would have made different decisions ” .
The alarm over the decline of the Republican party Obama also reiterates in the interview with 60 minutes that the television network CBS Airing Tomorrow: Speaking of Trump’s refusal to acknowledge Biden’s election victory, Barack says that “these inferences about voter fraud depend on the fact that the president does not like to lose, he will never admit defeat. I am more alarmed by the fact that other Republican leaders support it in this way: it is another step towards delegitimizing not only the Biden presidency but democracy in general. We are taking a dangerous path.
Biden’s Caution
Obama says he chose Joe Biden as MP (after considering and firing Hillary Clinton, too complicated also due to the difficulty of finding a role for former President Bill) “because he would have been more than ready to serve as president if it happened to me Something … And then Joe could have reassured those who thought I was too young with his presence. But above all, my deep instincts mattered: I perceived him as honest, intelligent and loyal. I thought that in difficult times I would not be disappointed.
The hard times came with the battle for health care reform: “I used him as an intermediary in negotiations with Republican leaders in Congress not only because of his long experience as a senator and his acumen as a legislator, but also because I thought that in the McConnell’s mind to negotiate with the vice president would have been preferable: he would not have set fire to the Republican base as much as cooperation with Obama (black, Muslim and socialist). ”The former president then pauses on the prudence of his deputy – now his successor – on military commitments abroad: against the bombing of the Navy Seals in Pakistan that led to the elimination of Osama and skeptical of the war in Afghanistan, so much so that Defense Minister Robert Gates gave him the detractor, a kind of stubborn gentleman.
The health reform
The health reform, the great battle of his presidency, is described in detail. Not only the difficulty of negotiations with the Republicans, but also the resistance of his own collaborators, from David Axelrod to Rahm Emanuel, convinced that it would be difficult to get public opinion to accept an expansion of the role of the State in the health of citizens . But also the pressure from leaders like Ted Kennedy who put pressure on him: “Now or never.” It is the story of an Obama who must be content with a reform in the middle, overwhelmed by the vehemence of the right (he calls the reform Obamacare, a term coined by the Republicans with derogatory intentions), and mistreated by the left when, to save what can be salvaged gives up the option of a public system.
The temptation of the “grillina”
In the book, Obama recounts his presidential experience with an often self-critical tone. He claims merit forcefully, without the dark, only when he talks about fiscal stimulus and other maneuvers with which, he writes, avoided a depression and allowed the US economy to recover from the Great Recession of 2008 faster than others. But he also admits his failures, starting with his resignation from immigration reform: “A bitter drink to swallow.” On health, he admits that he was too optimistic: “It seemed to me that the logic of the reform was so obvious” as to block the opposition. He was wrong for lack of experience: a stranger to the complex political games of Washington despite having been president for eight years.
He himself confesses it, frankly telling an anecdote: in search of more transparent government mechanisms and a more direct relationship with the citizens, one day Obama proposed to his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, to neutralize the work under the lobby table and objections. Republican pretexts, moving all reform negotiations to television: broadcast live on the nonprofit network C-Span. “When I explained my idea to Rahm,” Obama says, “I understood from his eyes that he wished he were not the president of the United States so that he could explain the stupidity of my plan in his colorful language. If we wanted the sanction of the law, he told me, we would have to face a complex path, reaching, along the way, dozens of agreements and accepting dozens of commitments: it was not a matter of being handled like a public seminar ».
The cost to the family
The relationship with Michelle continually returns in the book, even with its difficult moments and the strong impact of the presidency on the marriage: “Despite Michelle’s success and popularity, I felt in her an underground tension, subtle but constant, like a slight buzzing. of a hidden car. It was as if, locked within the walls of the White House, all previous causes of frustration had become stronger and more concentrated. And then the tension “for a political approach that subjected us to continuous scrutiny even as a family.” It did not help “the tendency, even of friends and relatives, to treat her role as a secondary role.” Tensions eased once he left the White House.
Visions and nostalgia
Barack also confesses his addiction to smoking – a hidden habit that, however, was talked about a lot. He smoked about ten cigarettes a day, always looking for “a discreet place to smoke at night.” He stopped chewing nicotine gum non-stop: “I stopped when I saw Malia frown after feeling the tobacco on my breath.” And more than in the White House – an experience that ended when he was very young – Obama feels nostalgic for the moments that will never return from his daughters’ adolescence: the memory of Malia writhing in her first leggings to dance or dance. little Sasha who giggled happily when he tickled her feet.
November 14, 2020 (change November 14, 2020 | 07:42)
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