Ben Rhodes

Before you wax nostalgic about an American presidency before Donald Trump when Barak Obama was admired the world over, when we weren’t waiting for the next ranting tweet from the White House, when Cabinet members weren’t falling like flies and Capitol Hill was a place where the representatives dutifully did their work as representatives of the people, read Ben Rhodes’ thrilling account as Barak Obama’s foreign policy speechwriter and Deputy National Security Officer.

Trump’s spectre was there all the time with his birtherism, his slander against Mexican immigrants, and barely concealed white nationalism.

Mitch McConnell was there frustrating almost all attempts to turn a Democrat agenda into law.

And Vladimir Putin was executing his disinformation campaigns in Latvia, Italy, Ukraine, and eventually America.

Obama took it on the chin from almost all quarters and his deputies suffered through endless Congressional investigations into palace intrigue, made up conspiracies, and press scrutiny.

Rhodes brought himself into politics through the door of the 9/11 commission. He was a young man with little direction after college. He didn’t appear to be a man driven to “serve” before 9/11 but it sure turned him into a believer afterward.

The problem was he made that transition in his idealistic years. As a White House aide he travelled a million miles in Air Force One, he broke off family holidays and family obligations to attend world changing events and meetings.

When he left after eight years of this grind, tired and dispirited from the verbal abuse he and his friends took, the world hadn’t changed all that much. Yes, there was an Arab Spring, but the few liberated Arab territories were moving toward a new totalitarianism.

Donald Trump was about to tear up American participation in the Trans Pacific Partnership, tear up the Iran nuclear deal, opt out of the Paris environmental accord, make friends with the invader of Crimea, and line his own pocket with endorsements for his hotels and country clubs.

Rhodes tells us that he orchestrated the Camelot moment of Anthony Bourdain and Barak Obama chewing noodles together in a Hanoi eatery. He tells us about his role in the thaw over Cuban policy, and funding to remove unexploded ordnance in Laos.

But in general this isn’t a story that makes you want to jump up and work in high places. It’s a cautionary tale that politics is a blood sport.… (meer)

I just finished this memoir and I think it has been one of the better Obama staff memoirs so far (I still give the leg up to Alyssa Mastromonaco’s).
Rhodes began as Obama’s speechwriter and was with him through his career. Why I think this one was one of the better books is Rhodes turns inwardly a bit and looks at places where they should have spoken up as nationalism began to rise. While there was a bit of polish on Obama, Rhodes wasn’t afraid to say, yeah, we messed up on this and it had deep consequences.
Definitely worth the read.… (meer)