Review of David Remnick's 'The Bridge'

This is the book every would-be Obama voter should have had in his or her hands two full years ago, or 2.5 for Democratic primary voters, even more.

If that had been the case, would Obama's campaign gotten the momentum it did? Possibly not so much.

Remnick does an excellent job of showing that Obama has always been a pragmatist, a conciliator and a neoliberal. (Oh, and in light of BP and Deepwater Horizon and Interior Secretary Kenny Boy Salazar, it's "interesting" that Remnick has nothing to write about an Obama environmental record.) That was all the case in Iowa, January 2008. But, many voters either didn't look deep enough, didn't know to look deep enough, or just made unwarranted assumptions.

That said, there is one missing thing in this book.

Remnick never (and this is a book about Obama's "rise," not just a narrow biography) looks at the issues of "white liberal guilt" or white assumptions about black Democratic politicians being liberal not neoliberal.

I think an addition 15-20 pages, within the last 100 or so, would have been plenty to cover that. That said, I think white liberal guilt and white unjustified assumptions were a factor. Obama might have gotten the nomination anyway, but it would have been even tougher. (Either he or Hillary Clinton still would have beaten McCain.)

Beyond that one thing, though, this book is very good. One suggestion: Also read Mendell's bio on Obama. It came out earlier and fresher, and from a Chicago perspective.

This is a great book overall, and, having referenced it above, you'll understand just why Obama is reacting to BP the way he does, why he had a cautious stimulus bill, why he believes so much in bipartisanship and more.

That last one is a biggie. Explicitly and implicitly, Remnick makes clear that Obama thought he as president could charm Congressional Republicans out of the trees. Well, he got his head handed to him on a platter more than once, but I still am not sure he has fully accepted that. (And he had four [theoretical] years in the Senate to have disabused him of that idea.)

Will he move further right after midterm elections? This book suggests that's a definite possibility.