I am not always right. But Barack Obama is a subject I believe I got right, right from the beginning. I concluded early on in Obama’s presidential campaign that he possessed a keen mind, oratorical gifts, and just the right combination of idealism and skeptical, analytic thinking to identify the best methods to achieve those goals. I spent Obama’s first campaign and two terms first as an opinion journalist at The New Republic and then at New York magazine, laying out this case as it unspooled day by day. I criticized him when I felt he deserved it, but mostly I found myself defending and admiring what I concluded early on was an exceptional and historic presidency.
The decision to turn this journalistic narrative into a coherent book-length argument was the product of several minds: this book’s editor, Geoffrey Shandler, my agent, Gail Ross, and my friend and former editor, Franklin Foer. It incorporates more than eight years’ worth of writing I did in collaboration with my talented colleagues and editors at both magazines, including, but not limited to, Frank, Chris Orr, Jonathan Cohn, Michael Crowley, Rachel Morris, Greg Veis, Richard Just, Noam Scheiber, Ryan Lizza, David Haskell, Ben Williams, Adam Moss, Adam Pasick, Noreen Malone, and Jebediah Reed. The number of people who influenced my thinking on the subject, some of them by sharpening it with challenging critiques, is far too great to list.
Writing this book took me away from my family many nights and weekends. I hope my children read this one day, and if they do, that they consider the sacrifice worthwhile. Robin, Joanna, and Benjy, and Mom, Dad, and Daniel, I owe everything to you.