Book Report: ‘The Promise: President Obama, Year One’By Louise Radnofsky
If you’ve finished reading accounts of how Barack Obama became president and what makes him tick, we have a new one for you: “The Promise: President Obama, Year One” by Newsweek senior editor Jonathan Alter, out next Tuesday from Simon & Schuster.
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There are plenty of “scooplets” that didn’t appear in Alter’s Newsweek reporting; he explains that sources told him he couldn’t use them immediately. Insiders will relish tidbits on the handling of the stimulus package, the bank and auto bailouts, Afghanistan policy. Here’s what really grabbed us:
The Transition: Alter finds out that Obama started preparing for his transition in May 2008, as soon as it became clear to his top advisers that Hillary Clinton couldn’t overtake him. The legislative director of Obama’s Senate office, Chris Lu, was tasked with launching the planning and was instructed to tell nobody about it – even his wife.
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Staffing Up: “Figuring out the Cabinet was like working a jigsaw puzzle,” Alter writes. No kidding.
We learn that Clinton would have been asked to be defense secretary if Robert Gates wouldn’t stay on, and that Obama considered making Attorney General Eric Holder the White House counsel. Larry Summers was offered a senior adviser’s job with daily access but insisted on being head of the National Economic Council and was banking on getting Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s job after his term expired in 2010. Bernanke was reappointed. Ray LaHood, a Republican congressman from Illinois, was supposed to be agricultural secretary but vetters worried he liked farming earmarks too much, so he ended up as transportation secretary.
Colin Powell turned down the education secretary post; Obama worried that his judgment about the eventual appointee, Arne Duncan, was clouded by their friendship, so he thought about taking on Michael Bennet, the Denver schools superintendent. Obama thought better of that after choosing Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar as interior secretary. Bennet went on to fill Salazar’s Senate seat.
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What Obama Is Like: Obama’s senior staff, Alter writes, offers a rough comparison to his basketball skills: A good finisher but avoids practice. Alter concludes, “As president he routinely rewrote speeches at the last minute, skipped rehearsal, and assumed the best. With the game on the line, he hit the three-pointer with nothing but net. His aides had faith he would, but worried still; even Michael Jordan missed sometimes.”
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The Health Care Story: Obama was the only person to really push for an ambitious reform plan in the first year of his presidency, Alter reports. Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel pushed for a less sweeping plan, which one strategist called the “Titanic approach… women and children first.” Vice President Joe Biden counseled, “they’ll give you a pass on this one.” Senior Adviser David Axelrod said voters were more worried about energy. Romer recommended waiting until the economy improved. When poll numbers in September 2009 suggested that voters still weren’t on board, Emanuel asked his boss if he was feeling lucky. “My name is Barack Hussein Obama and I’m sitting here,” the president said. “So yeah, I’m feeling pretty lucky.”
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/05/13/book-report-the-promise-president-obama-year-one/ 
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