Review by Choice Review
Debenedetti's chronological, historically descriptive narrative observes the intersecting nature of two individuals within the context of Washington politics. Written primarily, though not exclusively, for mass-market consumption, the text focuses on the ever-changing nature of the junior-senior relationship between Barack Obama and Joe Biden, in which the junior became the senior and vice versa across three of four presidential elections. Debenedetti (national correspondent, New York Magazine) also reveals Democratic decision-making processes over a variety of national events, ranging from economic recovery to the pandemic response and attempts at grappling with racial inequality, foreign engagement, and the ever-present climate change debate. Across the roughly 10 years of this odd-couple partnership, the author reveals his own political leanings, coupled with a scholar's glimpse into the political culture inside the beltway arena. What remains for readers is to ferret out whether the presidential and vice-presidential engagement comes closest to wreath layer and veto player or the more distinctive Carter-Mondale model. Vice President John Adams once stated that "I am nothing, but I may be everything." That hopeful but concerning statement continues to spur debate over the relationship with the revelation of this particular pairing. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals. --Gary Donato, Massachusetts Bay Community College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
New York magazine correspondent Debenedetti debuts with an engrossing study of the political and personal relationship between Joe Biden and Barack Obama. The narrative starts in 2004, when Obama delivered the keynote address at the Democratic national convention. After the speech, which catapulted the U.S. Senate candidate from Illinois to national celebrity, Biden told one of Obama's advisers to "make sure... he's a workhorse, and not a show horse." From there, Debenedetti meticulously tracks the pair's evolving relationship, noting that Obama initially found Biden to be condescending and dismissive, but changed his mind when he got to know the Delaware senator during the 2008 presidential primary. Biden was at first reluctant to be vetted for vice president, but his family pushed him to reconsider. From the beginning of their time in the White House, Biden sought to assert his influence while projecting loyalty, staying behind after meetings to confer with Obama and helping to secure legislative victories such as the 2009 Recovery Act. Debenedetti also details personality clashes and policy disagreements, including over the size of the troop surge Afghanistan in 2009, and describes Obama's careful deliberations over how involved he should be in the 2020 Democratic primaries. Doggedly reported and clear-eyed about its subjects' strengths and weaknesses, this is an illuminating portrait of a consequential political partnership. (Sept.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Carefully constructed study of the alternately "tense, affectionate, nonexistent, and ironclad" bond between a president and his vice president. By any measure, Barack Obama was less accomplished as a politician than Joe Biden when the former was elected senator. Despite inexperience, though, Obama had far more buzz around him as savior of a battered Democratic Party, for which reason he attracted attention, money, and a following large enough to win him the presidency. It must have rankled when that happened, but, as New York Magazine politics reporter Debenedetti shows, Biden easily adapted to the role of vice president. Over the next eight years, the relationship was sometimes stretched thin, in part because Biden was seen as the more willing negotiator on Capitol Hill than Obama, with Biden "always sure he could find common ground with GOP leaders he'd known for years," leaders who often proved unwilling to work with Obama at all. Even there, Biden sometimes failed; in a particularly telling moment, Debenedetti analyzes the aftermath of the Sandy Hook mass shooting, when it seemed possible that gun control legislation might be passed quickly if Obama and Biden acted immediately. Always cautious and methodical, they didn't. The GOP closed ranks, and Obama became more cynical in his remaining time in office: "If a heart-shredding national tragedy--twenty little kids murdered--wasn't going to jar the GOP into cooperation, they were never going to get serious and work with him on anything, were they?" If Obama is now seen as a senior statesman, Biden is president--and not because Obama went out of his way to help during the primaries, when, Debenedetti writes, he was bent on being "free to candidate-surf." The Obama-Biden alliance is healthier now, and while differences remain, both know that they speak to each other as "the only other person who could possibly begin to understand." A readable portrait of a political partnership that may be seen as one of the most productive in U.S. history. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
