Introduction
The book Renegade: The Making of a President, written by British born correspondent of Newsweek, Richard Wolffe, argues about how a newcomer in politics, who had no money and a name that was unfamiliar, matured into becoming the most powerful leader of the world. The book uniquely depicts the profound circumstances of the man who was code named Renegade by the Secret Service. The book is based on the close access that the author had with Obama and uncovers how a president was made, in terms of the track followed by his campaign as also his life before he ran for the esteemed position. The book reveals how Obama, emerged a winner in politics and how he learned the political and personal attributes to accomplish his goals during his early life. The man developed his strategies with self imposed discipline, planned risk taking and an uncomplicated style to tell his stories in surviving the political offensives of John McCain and Clinton. In this light, Wolffe has explicitly narrated the crux of what he wishes to convey, “This is the making of a president, witnessed from a front-row seat, as it unfolded from its first day to its last” (Wolffe, 2009).
Main body
The one big idea that one gets from the book about its topic is how a novice in politics could examine his political and personal trials in struggling with politics and race issues. It is remarkable to witness the struggles of the man who fought the presidential election in a campaign that was erratic during most of its first year. He was strong in reacting to his defeat in the primaries at New Hampshire and was seen as strongly sustaining himself solely on the strength his personal attributes and painstaking polling in passing the presidential test in economic and foreign affairs. The book is an authentic portrayal of President Obama as a man who proved to be strong in fighting his way through a challenge that was no easy task.
In essence, Renegade is a thorough guide in making one to understand President Obama and his dependable inner circles of supporters and aides, in addition to being a biographical guide to the President’s life. Although the book is founded mainly on the information obtained by Wolffe during the Presidential campaigns, it is more of a biography of President Obama since a lot of biographical information has been included. The author’s narrative about the Obama presidential campaign is an informative description of behind the scene motivation and decisions taken by the Obama campaign. The book also gives a fascinating and informative account of the first historical draft and political psychology of the events that led to Obama’s victory.
The book however appears to be improperly edited since the coverage of chronological events is not consistently depicted. The author starts explaining about an election night and then moves forward and backward through time. Most of the chapters are very lengthy and could have been shortened into smaller ones without much efforts. The author has relied heavily on excerpts from Obama’s writings in filling his personal history instead of portraying his life in a new manner. Wolffe’s approach appears to be more analytical instead of chronological and descriptive. The reader does have problem in connecting the chronology of events since the chapters appear to be very loosely framed. At one point the reader is informed about the Nevada Caucus and then he is made to read about the happenings in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Texas without getting to know of Obama winning consecutively in eleven primaries subsequent to Super Tuesday. The reader is unable to figure out that Clinton had lost after Obama’s winning spree, definitely so after Texas. There is very meagre discussion about the delegate strategies of David Plouffe. In making the given exclusions, Wolffe ignores the opportunities in explaining why Clinton refused to give in. The reader does not understand the details of Clinton’s campaign strategies after March 2008 which had annoyed supporters of Obama. Wolffe also does not elaborate on the delegate stories that were poorly reported by the media which made him to miss the chance to straighten the records of chronological events.
Wolffe has based his book on several unplugged interviews with Obama as a presidential candidate and also as the President after his victory. The author has also covered Obama’s 21 months election campaign while it travelled across the country. Richard Wolffe attempts to answer several questions that arise about Obama. Nevertheless, the author has narrated an amazing story in having restated about how unlikely it appeared only two years back that Obama would become the President of the USA. Obama was ranked 99 in seniority amongst 100 senators and in 2000 was denied admission into the Democratic Convention. Wolffe has explored all the ups and downs that occurred for Obama during 2008 and relayed sketches of all pertinent, familiar and new happenings. But the author has not revealed much of startling facts in his book except a few anecdotes that depict the horrifying glimpses about the lack of direction suffered by the Bush administration during the time of the economic collapse, and about how Obama faced a troubled marriage in 2000 at a time when his political ambition was beginning to surface.
Renegade has staked daring claims towards its own magnitude and has for most part lived up to it. Wolffe had the privilege to cover a campaign that was remarkably historic and he had the required access to the candidate in making his work exhaustive enough in creating the desired impact. The book candidly reveals that it was Obama who suggested to Wolffe to write the book. Obama appeared to be confident of his victory when he told Wolffe, “That’s why I’m running for president. Because I have good ideas” (Wolffe, 2009). It is well known that Obama has been compared with Kennedy in a number of ways. Kennedy’s election campaign too had inspired writers and it was Theodre White who broke the barrier by publishing The Making of the President, 1960, which is a classic that depicts political reporting in covering the campaign of President Kennedy from the perspective of a novelist, by depicting both drama and events in detail. There is a clear connection between the two books which starts with the similarity in their titles and further on in the fact that while Wolffe was a Newsweek correspondent and White had been a reporter with Time. There is however no conflict between the two in terms of information and conclusions. Wolffe has primarily used the technique of combining skills of biography and reporting in taking the milestones along the track of the campaign and using them as a portal in the characteristics of the man behind the contender.
Wolffe focuses on Obama in writing The Making of the President, 2008, and hardly devotes any time to the other candidates. He has deviated from White’s model of narrating the story in a traditional manner. All his chapters are well informed and energetic although continuity is found to be missing sometimes and state primaries have not been entirely covered. Unlike what White portrayed in his book on Kennedy, Wolffe does not provide comprehensive details about urban bosses and Southern overlords in the Democratic camps. Instead he focuses almost entirely on the protagonist who is indeed a dominating and fascinating personality. The author has not thrown much light on the larger efforts made in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, and has not scrutinized regions such as Missouri that have not been mentioned at all, although it was here that Obama defeated Hillary Clinton by a narrow margin. In fact Wolffe recalls that in 2007 autumn, “Obama was lagging behind Clinton by 24 points among black Democrats” (Wolffe, 2009). Most of the detailed account of the campaign relates to the drama revolving around Obama and Clinton, while not much has been revealed about the contest between Obama and McCain.
Conclusions
The author convincingly narrates about the lack of perseverance arising due to conflict between the Obama and Clinton camps. There is a realistic depiction of the core issues that divided the two camps in terms of differences arising due to policy disparities and other random factors such as the increase in gas prices. All arguments placed by Wolffe make a lot of sense since they give a realistic account of Obama’s victories while examining his varied political and personal trials. The book is very persuasive in making the reader to empathise with the intense wrestling that Obama engages in with political and race issues. The reader can explicitly observe from the book how Obama struggles with life while contesting the elections which for him appears to be faltering on several occasions. Obama is seen as setting an example for the world in relying on his personal wit, courage and experience in passing the presidential tests. The book is worth reading for all those who wish to track the manner in which American Presidents are elected as also to have an exhaustive idea of the vision and untiring efforts of Barack Obama.