PDF Summary:A Promised Land, by Barack Obama

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The Power of Democracy

Obama’s faith in democracy was a constant throughout his political career. He believed there was nothing more powerful, efficacious, healing, or unifying than ordinary people coming together through the democratic process to improve their lives, strengthen their communities, and overcome their divisions. He believed democracy in America worked because what united Americans as a people was far greater than what divided them.

For Obama, the democratic process was the best way for Americans to address their shared concerns and empower their communities. By urging Americans to focus on their common civic heritage and rich democratic traditions, Obama believed that a more unifying, healing, and empowering form of politics was possible—and he would constantly strive to bring that political vision to life.

Change From the Inside

As he built a political career, Obama saw that meaningful change could come—and often needed to come—from inside the system. This approach, of being a reformer rather than a revolutionary, would become central to his theory of political change and became a constant theme running through his...

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While he was struggling to make sense of his biracial identity and find his place as a young Black man being raised within a white family, Barack’s outlook on the world began to take shape, thanks to the crucial influence of his mother, Ann.

Ann Dunham was an iconoclast who'd rebelled against convention as a teenager and young adult. A product of the 1960s counterculture, she refused to conform to how mid-century mainstream American society dictated that a young person—especially a young woman—ought to behave.

She traveled the world, married and remarried several times, and never quite settled into an established career. As a result, she was often financially dependent on her parents, well into adulthood and motherhood. Still, her headstrong personality, her cosmopolitanism, and her rebelliousness deeply shaped Barack’s outlook.

Shaping Barack’s Moral World

Although she was a free thinker and questioner of conventional wisdom, Ann maintained a clear, almost black-and-white sense of right and wrong. She was appalled by the racism she saw both at home in the U.S. and during her travels abroad, viewed the Vietnam War as an immoral disaster, and was outraged by the...

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Running for Illinois State Senate

Barack and Michelle were married in 1992 at Trinity United Church of Christ, with the service officiated by the Reverend Jeremiah Wright Jr.—a figure who would later play a significant role in Barack’s political career.

After marrying Michelle and settling in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, Barack chose to forego several high-paying opportunities to work at high-powered law firms in the city. He was instead drawn to public service, to the idea of working for social justice and political empowerment. He took up a teaching position at the University of Chicago School of Law and worked for a small civil rights-focused law firm (mostly dealing with employment discrimination cases).

During the 1992 election cycle, Barack successfully ran Project VOTE!, the largest voter-registration drive in the history of Illinois up to that time. In this role, he had the opportunity to build on the lessons he’d learned as a community organizer—while making some early political connections across the state.

In 1995, a new opportunity opened up that would set Barack on the path that would define the rest of his and Michelle’s lives. That fall,...

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In 2002, Barack began traveling outside of his Chicago district and into those of some of his colleagues, especially in the more conservative southern part of Illinois. He wanted to better understand the concerns and hopes of these Illinoisans from other corners of the state. After all, if he was to work with the senators who represented them, he would need to have a more firm understanding of their political needs.

In speaking with more conservative voters, Barack realized that the traditional dividing lines in political life—white and Black, native born and immigrant, conservative and liberal—obscured how most voters generally shared the same set of concerns.

There were political disagreements, often passionate disagreements. But everywhere he went, people worried about bread-and-butter issues like the cost of health care, the quality of education, and making sure their kids could enjoy even greater opportunities than they’d had. Despite the divisions, what united Illinoisans was far stronger than what divided them.

Building a Statewide Base

Obama’s travels around the state also helped him make some important statewide political connections. Newly fired up,...

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Making the Emotional Connection

In the early months of 2007, Barack struggled to connect with voters or clearly articulate his vision for the country—or, critically, why the country should elect him president. In debates, he found that his command of issues paled in comparison with Hillary Clinton’s mastery of complex policy matters like health care.

Axelrod told Obama that he needed to make an emotional connection with voters, not simply bury them with facts and figures. The president was not a technocrat or an engineer; instead, the job was about rallying people behind a vision for the future. Axelrod told Obama that, with his unique life story, the historic nature of his candidacy, and his vision of a unifying politics, he was the only candidate in the race who could truly mobilize Americans toward a common purpose.

Clinton, for all her intelligence and policy chops, could never do that. As a former first lady and object of intense dislike by Republicans, she would never be able to transcend the stale and tired politics of the past. Only Obama represented true change—this was the message he needed to sell to the voters.

Carrying Forward a...

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Thus, an ordinary sermon might be peppered with references to slavery, Jim Crow, and the mass incarceration of young Black men as a result of the War on Drugs. In its proper context, such rhetorical flourishes made sense and were generally uncontroversial. But thrown into the context of a presidential election featuring an African-American candidate, they proved explosive.

Despite the political pain Wright was causing him, Obama felt empathy for his pastor. Wright could indeed sometimes channel the voice and persona of a 1960s radical. Especially when he knew he was speaking to primarily Black audiences at his church. But Obama also knew that Wright was a serious theologian and thoughtful, nuanced figure. He deserved far better than the caricature that was being made of him by the national media.

The Philadelphia Speech

Nevertheless, Obama recognized that his campaign hinged on addressing the Wright controversy. On March 18, 2008, he delivered a historic and widely viewed speech in Philadelphia on America’s racial legacy.

Speaking as much to a white audience as he was to his Black supporters, Obama used the Wright controversy to explain long-simmering Black feelings of...

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Obama needed to start at the top, finding a White House Chief of Staff who could coordinate the day-to-day activities of the Office of the President, build alliances across the executive branch and Congress to implement the president’s agenda, and generally serve as the chief executive’s eyes and ears in Washington. Although not a constitutional role, the White House Chief of Staff had unrivaled access to the president and was generally considered to be one of the most powerful jobs in the country—if not the world.

Rahm Emanuel: Chief of Staff

For his first chief of staff, Obama selected Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel was a veteran of the Clinton White House, a former member of Congress, and a former investment banker.

His mix of political experience, relationships on Capitol Hill, background in the world of finance, and personal relationship with Obama (the two men knew each other from the Chicago political scene) made him an attractive choice for Obama.

Emanuel was known as a take-no-prisoners political brawler with a brash style and a famously expletive-laden speaking style. Obama knew that his chief of staff would be a fearless public advocate for his agenda, but still...

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In the midst of the daily thrum of activity, Obama maintained a furious pace of work in these crucial early months of his presidency. In particular, his eyes were continually glued to the economic news and the key economic data points—the unemployment rate, the inflation rate, long- and short-term interest rates, and the stock market index, to name just a few. The president knew that his administration would sink or swim with those numbers and how Americans judged his performance in managing the worst economic crisis in a generation.

Michelle as First Lady

One of Barack’s deepest joys in these early days of his presidency was seeing how Michelle grew into the role of first lady. In addition to being a superb mother to Malia and Sasha, Michelle now had a very public position.

Although first ladies might not be caught up in the day-to-day scrum of Washington politics, they still could be lightning rods for controversy. In her role, Michelle was expected to be the face of modern American womanhood. In the 21st century, this meant that she faced pressure to break down gender barriers and speak out against the traditional forms of exclusion and marginalization faced...

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Members of this clique defended their record by saying that they provided U.S. foreign policy with a consistency and stability that had enabled the nation to successfully navigate and win the Cold War and emerge as the world’s preeminent superpower in the 21st century.

Critics—like Obama—believed on the other hand that the foreign policy community had devolved into a consensus-driven, conformist, and groupthink mentality, while exercising a complete lack of moral judgment. Its failures could be seen in the ill-fated rush to war in Iraq, the establishment of extrajudicial detention centers at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, and the documented use of torture by U.S. interrogators. All of this undermined America’s moral standing in the world and hindered the achievement of long-term strategic foreign policy goals.

Throughout Obama's term in office, these tensions would play out between the foreign policy establishment and its critics, with the conflict even taking place within the administration itself. More seasoned figures like Robert Gates and Hillary Clinton would clash with younger, more iconoclastic administration officials like Ben Rhodes and Jake Sullivan, the latter of...

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The G20 Summit in London

One of the earliest opportunities for the Obama administration to present the renewed American commitment to internationalism was the G20 Summit in London in April 2009. The G20 was an annual meeting of leaders from the world’s 20 largest economies.

The goal of the 2009 summit was to discuss the financial and economic crisis and agree on a framework for rebuilding the global economy. It was clear that the U.S. alone could not power a recovery. With a badly depressed housing market and record levels of household debt, U.S. consumers were not in a position to rejuvenate global demand on their own. Individual countries (and international institutions like the European Union) would have to use their own fiscal and monetary policies to dig themselves out.

As Obama saw it, the United States could not simply force other countries to bend to its will, but it could still build international coalitions and exercise moral leadership in tackling the world’s most pressing issues.

The BRIC Countries and the Need for U.S. Leadership

At the London summit, Obama had his first opportunity to meet the key international leaders whose support he would...

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A Failing Health Care System

By 2009, there was widespread agreement that the American health care system was in dire need of reform. Medical specialization, breakthroughs, and innovation could deliver great health benefits, but also dramatically drove up the cost of treatment.

Because of the complex nature of health care and the vast knowledge disparity between the average patient and the medical providers, patients increasingly found themselves at the mercy of pharmaceutical companies, insurance carriers, device makers, and hospital networks, with no effective way to make informed health care spending decisions.

Worse, America’s vast uninsured population drove up health care costs even for those who did have insurance. This was because the uninsured were more likely to wait until they were extremely ill (and thus, more expensive to treat) before seeking treatment at hospital emergency rooms—with for-profit hospitals making up the loss by overcharging their insured patients.

But perhaps the most morally indefensible features of the system were the practices of the big insurance companies to deny coverage to their customers—because actually paying for...

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(Shortform note: To learn more about the rationale for the Supreme Court’s lifetime appointments and for a deeper exploration of the U.S. Constitution, read our summary of The Federalist Papers.)

Presidents had historically been given great deference by the Senate in their choice of nominees to the Court, with most nominees being confirmed by large bipartisan majorities. But the ongoing process of political polarization that began in the mid-20th century had eroded this norm, with Supreme Court confirmations devolving into closely contested political and ideological flashpoints. Obama knew that whomever he picked would come under partisan scrutiny.

Sonia Sotomayor Makes History

On May 26, 2009, President Obama officially nominated Sonia Sotomayor, then a sitting judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, to replace Souter on the Supreme Court. She was a historic pick as the first Latina and first person of Puerto Rican descent to be nominated to the nation’s highest court.

Having grown up the child of working immigrant parents in the New York City borough of the Bronx, Sotomayor...

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The Harsh Politics of Climate Change

Despite the terrifying consequences of inaction on global warming, Obama knew that the politics of passing a major climate change bill were exceedingly difficult. Global warming entails the rise in average temperatures of a degree or two over a century. Even such seemingly minor rises in temperature, however, would have catastrophic consequences for life on the planet.

But because the temperature changes are so slow, most people would never notice them, even in the course of a lifetime. Thus, global warming seemed abstract or unreal to many people. The general public was unwilling to make sacrifices now that would only benefit future generations, all in service of a problem they couldn’t see or directly experience.

Even among Democrats, there was lukewarm enthusiasm for tackling the issue. Key constituencies like labor unions were fearful of the economic impact of climate legislation, and rank-and-file Democratic voters generally unmotivated by the issue.

But things were far worse on the Republican side. The GOP was outright hostile to the very idea of climate legislation, with prominent voices within the party...

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While it could be thrilling and deeply rewarding, working for the president was also a grueling ordeal. Staffers were exhausted, overworked, and rarely had the opportunity to see their families.

Microaggressions at the White House

In such an environment, staff resentments and squabbles began to bubble to the surface. Cabinet members and high-level staff jockeyed for precious time on the president’s schedule, while mid-level staffers engaged in turf wars over matters of policy.

Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett even reported to the president that a number of women on the White House staff had come forward with accounts of having been disrespected by male colleagues. Obama took these claims seriously and invited a group of women on the staff to dinner with him to discuss it. While no one reported any egregious misconduct, female staff members nevertheless reported a consistent pattern of being shouted down, condescended to, and interrupted by their male coworkers—including senior staff members like Rahm Emanuel and Larry Summers.

Hearing these accounts, Obama looked inward and questioned how his own machismo and jocular demeanor with male staff members may have...

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Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans were unwilling to take this deal, however. They wanted a full extension of the Bush tax cuts, period. But Obama knew that this was not a position the Republicans could maintain—McConnell would have to deal with the administration, because if Obama simply did nothing and ran out the clock, all the tax cuts would expire and the Republicans would get nothing.

Ultimately, Obama sent Vice President Biden to handle the negotiations, believing that cutting a deal with Biden would be less politically risky for McConnell than dealing with the president directly. Biden and McConnell agreed on a two-year extension of all the tax cuts, in exchange for an extension of unemployment benefits and an extension of the administration’s $212 billion worth working- and middle-class tax reforms.

Although he hadn’t wanted to extend the full schedule of Bush tax cuts, Obama was pleased that he’d been able to deliver meaningful tax relief for ordinary Americans. It also provided a crucial opening salvo for the 2012 presidential election. If Obama won in two years, he’d be in a position to end the tax cuts; if he lost, Republicans would be in a...

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The myopic and long-entrenched leaders of these countries were slow to react to waves of young people taking to the streets, aided in their organizing and communications power by the nascent technology of social media.

In Cairo’s Tahrir Square, young people protested to demand the end of the country’s “emergency law,” which had been in effect since 1981 and had severely curtailed civil liberties and the free press. The demonstrators wanted pro-democracy reforms and for longtime Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak (1928-2020) to step down after 30 years in office.

Although Obama couldn’t help but sympathize with the young demonstrators battling a corrupt and authoritarian political establishment, he had deep concerns about the impact that the movement—which quickly became known as the Arab Spring—would have on U.S. interests in the region.

Analysts in the administration worried that Egypt did not yet have the necessary conditions to make a transition to a healthy democracy: a democratic tradition, experienced and well-established political parties, and an independent judiciary. As a result, the idealistic young demonstrators likely wouldn’t be the ones to step into the...

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It was also important to Obama’s broader goal of refocusing and redefining the nation’s counterterrorism strategy. Obama believed that Bush’s embrace of the “War on Terror” framing was counterproductive. In his view, this framing elevated Al Qaeda and validated its self-delusions that it was engaged in a titanic, cosmic struggle with the United States. This “War on Terror” mindset had justified the failed invasion and occupation of Iraq, alienated potential allies in the Muslim world, and ultimately failed to make the country safer from the threat of Islamist terrorism.

Eliminating bin Laden would be a powerful way to show the world that groups like Al Qaeda were not all-powerful conspirators capable of bringing the world to its knees—instead, they were simply deranged and deluded killers.

The Pacer

But locating bin Laden was easier said than done. U.S. forces were believed to have been very close to capturing him in December 2001. Unfortunately, he managed to slip away from his hideout in the caves of the remote Tora Bora region of Afghanistan. Since then, his trail had gone cold—though he still periodically emerged to release videos taunting the U.S. and mocking...

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Obama wasn’t sure he could answer this question. But it would be the work of the rest of his time in office to push the nation toward these goals.