Chait offers a well-organized, clearly written case that will be valuable to future historians in their assessments. The...
A cogent argument that President Barack Obama has mostly succeeded in implementing his agenda.
As reflected in the book's title, New York political columnist Chait (The Big Con: The True Story of How Washington Got Hoodwinked and Hijacked by Crackpot Economics, 2007), a former senior editor at the New Republic, claims that Obama established audacious goals and never lost sight of how to implement them despite the opposition of the Republican majority within the U.S. Congress and ongoing racism throughout American society. Without tipping his hand about his long game, Chait maintains, Obama decided to absorb short-term setbacks, believing he would win a second term to accomplish what could not be implemented during the first. The author does not pretend to offer a scorecard on every vital initiative presented during Obama's two terms; rather, Chait focuses on the president’s approaches to economic policy, which was designed to alleviate the recession inherited from the Republicans; health care reform and the Affordable Care Act; combating environmental degradation; and navigating the wars being waged around the globe. Within each chapter, the author questions the perceptions of presidential success versus failure, not only among Obama's virulent detractors, but also among his leftist supporters. Chait attempts to unravel what he views as the mystery of how so many commentators put forth what became the conventional wisdom that Obama failed to achieve meaningful change during his presidency—despite the evidence to the contrary. The author predicts that after Obama leaves the presidency, this wrongheaded perception will dissipate. He also moves his argument beyond policy proposals to suggest that Obama's admirable character and steely mental makeup contributed significantly to policy successes.
Chait offers a well-organized, clearly written case that will be valuable to future historians in their assessments. The question is whether readers with different opinions about Obama's performance will alter those opinions.Pub Date: Jan. 17, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-242697-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Custom House/Morrow
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
Vignettes of prison life, as told from inside the ``big house.'' Washington, who spent 16 years in federal jails after being convicted of murder (he claimed self-defense), serves an anedcotal smorgasbord of prison life and people. He goes for a nitty-gritty tone, as when he informs us that, in jail, ``criticism can come from the blade of a knife or a punch in the mouth.'' The bulk of his text consists of thumbnail sketches of fellow felons, guards, escape attempts, and bureaucratic snafus—all quite unevenly realized. His one-page portrait of ``Old Man Henry Carter'' is typical. Carter had come to the prison ``before rules were rules, and no records of him were kept.'' Although old and stooped, he had a kind word and smile for everyone; even the warden was moved to create a job to uphold Carter's sense of self-worth: He swept floors and delivered empty envelopes to people who called him a ``good old boy.'' Members of the Chaplain's Aid Committee took turns writing Carter so that he would receive mail, as did his fellow prisoners. When he died, the cause of death was listed by the doctor as ``PRISON.'' Washington's sour attitude toward the inhuman and arbitrary prison bureaucracy—it may be justified, but we've heard it all before—contrasts with the cleanly expressed pathos of ``Carter'' and similar still lifes in this patchy collection. His peculiarly fecund material would probably be more powerfully realized as short stories. Righteous anger, pointed questioning, and a plaintive voice that cannot be denied—but a far cry from the rage and fury of the best prison writing.
Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1994
ISBN: 0-936609-33-8
Page Count: 176
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1994
An astute, engrossing examination of the dynamic relationship between comedy and social revolution. Jenkins (Performing Arts/Emerson College), who has traveled the globe both as a student and as a professional clown, draws his material from a wealth of personal experiences. From France come the violent antics of the Archaos metal clown troupe: Costumed in suits of corrugated metal, the clowns play out nihilistic battles against evil machines that symbolize the struggle of the individual against an increasingly hostile environment. In stark contrast to the Archaos troupe are Bali's sacred temple clowns, who ``purify'' traditional rituals with the cleansing power of laughter. The Balinese clowns also inject current events into the ancient rituals, thus bridging the gap between modern reality and tradition. Comedy in formerly Communist Lithuania served to deconstruct the official vision of reality imposed by a totalitarian state. Jokes about the incompetence of the KGB and Communist bureaucracy abounded; turning the oppressor into a buffoon helped ease the burden of fear and harsh living conditions. In South Africa under apartheid, jokes about the police and government were intended to ``subvert the tyranny of a system that leaves its people spiritually homeless.'' In Italy the performer Dario Fo mocks corruption both in the Catholic hierarchy and in the secular government; his comedies serve to rekindle anger in an industrialized nation grown apathetic under the strain of centuries of corruption and political scandal. Japan's informal taishu engeki theater serves as a forum in which the working class can ridicule the stringent rules of etiquette that bind them to conformity in their everyday lives. Finally, Jenkins analyzes American comedy, noting that truly subversive acts tend to be marginalized and replaced by slick, detached performances that render true rage impossible. The author's intimate connection to his material and his tremendous capacity for description strengthen this provocative and entertaining work.
Pub Date: Oct. 27, 1994
ISBN: 0-02-916405-2
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Free Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1994
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