Halfway through Obama's
A Promised Land. As said, usually I'm not into politician's memoirs, but in the light of the shitshow of 2021, Obama's quite a refreshing read. As could be expected, it's at times overly dramatic and Hollywood-esque with him shedding tears over letters from parents of fallen soldiers, blablabla... but at its core, it also provides valuable insight into how different institutions and key players in America work
in practice. In its best moments, Obama carries you through the conflicting ideas and feelings behind his decisions. Not being from the US myself, this has taught me a lot about certain unwritten rules in US politics that I hadn't been aware of. There's also some interesting behind-the-scenes stuff (probably not always the whole truth, of course).
I also like Obama as a person. Obviously, he's trying really hard to come off as the guy-next-door, but it's also nice to listen to a politician, who doesn't shy away from questioning himself and his motivations in politics and who somewhat believes in the value of modesty. I'm also buying his inner conflict between pragmatism and idealism. Obama never seemed like a power-hungry narcissist to me.
While Obama is being fair to almost all fellow politicians, he also proves that Mitch McConnell is a complete dipshit, and tells you not just between the lines.
That being said, it's about time to get back to my normal reading. Just had these in the mail. Can't decide which one to read first: