The Audacity to Win by David Plouffe
09/03/10 09:13 Filed in: POlitics
400 Pages, Viking Adult. $27.95
Review by Mike Attebery
Books about the 2008 election are rolling in now. I’ve already read “Renegade: The Making of a President” by Richard Wolfe, and I’m currently in the middle of “Game Change” by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, but so far, the first to come from an insider who was with the campaign from the start is “The Audacity to Win” by David Plouffe, Campaign Manager of Obama for America.
At this point, I’ve read enough about the 2008 election, one which I feel represented a critical turning point for this country, to see a number of areas of repetition and ground well covered. I think that’s actually a good thing, as it lets us know that, yeah, we’re getting the story conveyed to us properly. Yet whereas “Renegade” and “Game Change” tell us the story from the outside, albeit through the often off the record accounts of those who lived it, or who knew someone who did, Plouffe’s book tells us everything from firsthand knowledge, from the anxious period during which Obama’s folks knew he could go either in in deciding to run or not run, to their first steps hitting back at an opponent in a way that the candidate felt was beneath both himself and the type of campaign he sought to run, we are there, clinging to the wall, antenna on high alert, picking up every bump and shift in the political landscape, and whats interesting, even at the early stages of the campaign, and in looking back on the campaign now that one quarter of the first Obama administration has run its course, is that all the signs are there for what to expect of his Presidency, what might drive some of us crazy, and what the folks in the inner circle found both perplexing and refleshingly reassuring about their man in the running for the most powerful job in the world.
The name No Drama Obama was accurate then, as it it now, and that sense of cool reasoning, calm demeanor, and careful deliberation is seen again and again over the course of the two years covered in this book. Not only that, we get to see the process of a man with incredible gifts, who often steps up his game dramatically only when pressed or after a period of extended procrastination. During the campaign those tendencies played out again and again as Obama prepared for major speeches, prepped for debates, and plotted turning points. Today, I’d argue it’s well on display as each of the administration’s signature initiatives reach ever increasing levels of opposition from political adversaries, not to mention those memebers within the President’s own party who for fear or lack of force, seem to be increasingly reluctant to step up and truly rock the boat in the way I believe the majority of American’s feel must be done. Yet as the folks on the campaign learned, you underestimate Barack Obama at your peril. They saw it, his opponents saw it, and even today, as I write this, we’re seeing it firsthand.
So then what of the book? I found it fascinating. It reads quickly, while providing enough insider morsels and jargon to stoke one’s curiosity for the subject matter. Unlike “Renegade” which I felt stretched its limited access to the candidate beyond its measure for reliable insight, I didn’t ever feel I was getting a story whose cracks had been spackled over with questionable insights or abbreviated recaps of events already well known to many of us in the general public. This if truly an account from the belly of the beast. It’s all here, all the nitty gritty, all the blood, sweat, and unexpected tears, and let me tell you, this is fascinating stuff.