A Long Time Coming
*Starred Review* Newsweek editor Thomas gathered the gleanings of various Newsweek colleagues to create an adroitly distilled chronicle of the 2008 presidential campaign and the election of Barack Obama, the first African American president of the U.S. This easily devoured, crisply anecdotal account, spiked with revealing, side-of-the-mouth comments, charts the most cautious and reckless of political maneuverings and provides in-action portraits of the major players, both obvious and behind-the-scenes. Hillary Clinton is indecisive; Bill Clinton is “disastrous.” John McCain, crabby and truculent, allows his “inner Dennis the Menace” to take over. And, most vividly, here is Barack Obama, reflective and restrained, a “relentless self-improver” with a “think-first instinct” and “ironic detachment.” Thomas and company observe Obama meeting with his disciplined staff, writing his speeches longhand, prepping for debates, and striving to avoid the pitfalls of campaigning, from fatty food to taking the bait of adversaries. Readers catch telling glimpses of surefire Axelrod and the Obama nerd squad and are privy to inside-the-tent discussions of race and get-out-the-vote strategies. Thomas writes that Obama, an avid reader and gifted writer, sees himself as “a figure out of literature,” and, indeed, real-life stories don’t get more compelling than this. --Donna Seaman