A Long Time Coming

Obviously a lot goes on during an election that shouldn't meet the eye before election day - Newsweek had reporters inside observing everything but embargoed until after the returns were counted - it makes for a great read even tho you know how it came out - and makes you even happier about the result

I really enjoyed this book, a great recap of the election. I saw on some other reviews that is just a reprint of the articles in the Newsweek magazine. Maybe it was, but I live a small town and am not always able to get Newsweek and Time magazines. The local stores do not carry them, or if they do, only a few copies, because they never seem to have them. The independent book store I go to, only gets a few, and they are always sold out. I did read one article on line, but when I found out the author was going to put the articles in a book, I just waited. So for me, this was great. A great read, and really, really interesting.

This is a nicely presented story of the tide that swept Obama into the White House and into what appears to be a place of unique influence around the world. Most importantly (to me) it is a very positive, hopeful introduction to this next chapter of our history, coming at a time when our country needs to feel this kind of energy and hopefulness. This is a very good read and I recommend it highly.

I enjoyed this book very much. It's a fast read with effective juxtaposition of what was going on in each major campaign at the same approximate time. The overall details will be familiar to the reader but I found the behind-the-scenes subtext enlightening and valuable. The book is spare in the sense that it mostly follows a "just the facts" style with little extraneous detail or illustrative exposition; if you are looking for flowery, evocative or soaring prose look elsewhere. I did not read the Newsweek series so cannot attest to the alleged similarity. Perhaps because of that, I judged the book at face value and found that it delivers more or less what the reader expects. One area where it does come up short, in my opinion, is in delivering what I would call first person Obama. There is some of that but generally the portrait one gets is second person or impressionistic. If what you seek is Obama on Obama, the first 60 Minutes television interview is a better source. Another deficiency is the lack of an index. With all of that considered, however, the average reader will nonetheless find A Long Time Coming to be enjoyable, insightful and well-worth the time.

There's nothing worse than day-old news, but there's almost nothing more exciting than to be reminded of this past year's presidential election, which had more drama than most previous ones. In opera, the saying is "it ain't over 'til the fat lady sings", but in 2008 it was the thin man who brought down the final curtain. Evan Thomas, in his new book, "A Long Time Coming", captures these months beautifully. In every campaign there are turning points and in the 2008 race, I remember these most: Obama's win in the Iowa caucuses, Bill Clinton's comments in South Carolina (which changed me from neutral to Obama), Hillary's poorly-run campaign and Sarah Palin's implosion timed with the stock market's steep decline. The book is set up as a back-and-forth between the campaigns and Thomas's recollections of the underlying concerns of each campaign are pitch-perfect. The reader gets a front row seat to see and hear things about which we didn't know in the campaigns (but about which one might have suspected). My guess is that everyone had his or her own idea when Obama really had things wrapped up...in retrospect, I think it was when it became apparent that Obama and not Hillary would be the Democratic nominee. While John McCain ran a bad campaign, he really was up against history, as the author points out. But the Obama people were unified and flew under the radar, allowing the candidate to rise above traditional politics. It worked in the end, of course. Thomas's narrative is evenly-paced and includes a rare interview with candidate Obama at the end of the book. It's a fitting and revealing look at our forty-fourth president who weathered a near-perfect storm to get his chance to sit in the Oval Office. After many months of campaigning, perhaps it was, indeed, "a long time coming".