The
Amateur, written by Edward Klein, former foreign editor of Newsweek
and the editor-in-chief of the New York Times Magazine, is an expose on the
Obama presidency, or as Hans Christian Anderson would say, "The Emperor
has NO clothes."
"The
Amateur" presents a president who is inept in the art of management and
governance, who doesn't learn from his mistakes and chooses to blame all his
problems on those with whom he disagrees including Republicans and George W.
Bush. Author Klein paints a portrait of a man who discards old friends and
supporters when they are no longer useful (this list includes Democrats,
African-Americans & Jews-those who aided Obama both with getting out the
votes as well as substantial financial support when he was a complete
unknown).We discover a man who is so thin-skinned that he constantly complains
about what people say or write about him.
The picture of Obama that emerges in The Amateur is
different from the Photo-shopped image that Obama's campaign staff
and media fed to the public. Obama portrayed himself as a new kind of
politician, a peacemaker, a mediator, a conciliator, a man who would heal the
rift between the red and blue states, and help to heal the racial divide here
in
Ed Klein exposes Obama as a left-wing radical who has
refused to embrace American exceptionalism and who rails against our capitalist
system, demonizes the wealthy, and even embraces failed groups like the Occupy Wall Street
movement.
As a state senator and U.S. senator, Obama was MIA
(missing-in-action). He didn't even show up for picture day at the U.S. Senate,
never went to committee meetings. One observer noted, "He had no interest
in government itself. He just wanted to stand on the Senate floor and give
speeches." And true-to-form, this is the image of Obama that emerges time
and again.
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| Obama: Master of the "Blame Game" |
As President of the United States , he calls meetings
with his experts on foreign affairs which include high-ranking generals, and
every time, he does most of the talking. We are presented with a man who has
two big ears, but does very little in the way of listening. In every meeting,
he plays the role of the wisest man in the room, or the adult in the room
amidst all the children. He lectures but he doesn't listen. Even when he
listens, he is not listening. As referenced time after time in the book, Obama
has already made up his mind. He is just acting like he's interested in what
you're saying, or put another way, he's enduring your presence and your
foolishness, waiting so he can finally lecture you and tell you what he's going
to do, whether you like it or not. This is exactly how he treated Benjamin
Netanyahu, current prime minister of Israel .
In the Amateur, those who have known Obama the
longest recall that he always had delusions of grandeur and was
preoccupied with his own place in history--so much so that he wrote his own
autobiography before he was 30 yrs. old and during his first year in the White
House, hosted a dinner with 12 famous historians so that he could influence his
place in history.
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| Barack & Michelle guesting on Oprah! |
One other shocking revelation is the chapter on the
sacrifice of Oprah Winfrey who jeopardized her career and her television
ratings, going out on a limb to support and campaign for Obama. Soon after the
election, Oprah was treated like a pariah, left out in the cold, not even
welcome at the White House.
The chapter where Obama's pastor of 20 yrs., Jeremiah
Wright, is interviewed, is worth the price of the book itself. Wright talks
about the ways Obama has stabbed him in the back and disowned the black
community in Chicago .
The Amateur is a compelling, spellbinding book about a man
who is cool, aloof, detached, and hollow to the core, yet as a passionate
ideologue, wants another four years to finish the job of destroying America.
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