How Obama Governed by Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Author and political analyst Earl Ofari Hutchinson takes a no-political holds barred look at President Barack Obama’s first year in office. He answers one compelling question: Did he fulfill the massive and sweeping promise he made to restore hope and effect change in America?

This promise energized millions, reshaped the nation’s political tapestry, and propelled the first African-American into the White House. Hutchinson examines where and how Obama kept his promise, and where and how he failed to keep it. He examines in laser detail the attacks and counterattacks from the GOP and the Democrats. He delineates the differences and similarities between Obama and Bush in waging the war on terrorism. He assesses the towering battles over health care, the economy, racial attacks, the GOP counterinsurgency, Afghanistan, and the Henry Louis Gates flap. He provides readers with a guide as to how Obama will continue to govern.

How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge offers a virtual political clinic on the crisis and challenges that the nation and its first African-American president faced his first year in the White House.


Author Says Obama Faces New Crisis with Election Loss of Top Democrats


The announcement that Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Dodd and other leading Democrats won’t run for re-election puts poses a new crisis President Obama. In his new book How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge, author and political analyst Earl Ofari Hutchinson predicted that there would be major losses among Democrats in 2010. He noted that some of those losses would be among top Democrats.

Hutchinson notes that this could cripple Obama’s efforts to get his agenda on immigration, cap and trade, implementing health care reforms, and his judicial appointments through Congress. It will also mortally wound Obama’s efforts to make bi-partisanship the watchword of his administration.

“The loss, defection, and potential defeat of top Democrats in 2010 will stiffen the GOP in its opposition to much of Obama’s agenda,” says Hutchinson, “It will also put Democrats on the political defensive. This will present yet another major challenge to Obama’s administration to stem the tide of political reverses.”

In How Obama Won, Hutchinson gives a no holds barred assessment of the make and break issues that confront Obama in 2010. These are the issues that will determine whether Obama can really deliver on his lofty promise of hope and change.


Earl Ofari Hutchinson is a nationally acclaimed author and political analyst. Hutchinson is the author of ten books on race and politics in America. His three most recent books are: How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge, How Obama Won, and The Ethnic Presidency: How Race decides the Race to the White House

His featured interviews and comments on race and politics have appeared in Time, Newsweek, the New York Times, and ABC’s World News Tonight.

He has been a guest analyst on the Fox News John Gibson Show, the O’Reilly Factor, Hannity & Colmes, the Glenn Beck Show, PBS Lehrer Report, NPR’s Talk of the Nation and various CNN News shows.

Hutchinson is the National Political Writer for New America Media and a regular contributor to The Huffington Post.

Alan Kennedy-Shaffer and The Obama Revolution

The first book to be written by a campaign staffer and offering rare insider glimpses, The Obama Revolution explores how a generation of believers and the politics of hope won the presidency for Barack Obama and changed the world.

The Obama Revolution carefully examines what Obama plans to do as president, how Obama clinched the Democratic nomination and won the general election, and why Obama’s evocative rhetoric inspired millions of Americans to create a political revolution that toppled the status quo and changed the face of American politics forever.

Drawing on both first-hand campaign experience and scholarly analysis, the author delivers everything from personal stories of grass-roots organizing and grueling all-nighters to candid assessments of the Obama campaign’s strengths and weaknesses. Insightful and powerfully written The Obama Revolution offers an enlightening, annotated, documented overview of Obama’s path to the White House and what it means to every American.

Learn how Obama used policies of change, strategic vision, and the rhetoric of hope to transform the campaign into a political movement. Discover how field organizers (most under 30), using cell phones and the Internet, mobilized and energized a whole new generation of voters. Follow the author as he registers voters, spreads the word and is touched by the people he meets.

Anyone wondering whether America's flame still burns brightly needs to read this book and be inspired by the hope, the promise, and the ardor of Barack Obama and “Generation Change”—the future of America—as they work hand-in-hand to fulfill the legacy of change that is the Obama Revolution.

Today's guest blogger is Alan Kennedy-Shaffer, who served as a regional field director for Barack Obama and the Democratic Party in Virginia. Educated at Yale University and William & Mary Law School, Kennedy-Shaffer is the author of Denial and Deception: A Study of the Bush Administration’s Rhetorical Case for Invading Iraq. Kennedy-Shaffer’s writings have also appeared in The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, the Washington Post, the Patriot-News, the Daily Press, and the Virginia Gazette. Alan lives in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.

You can visit his website at www.alankennedy-shaffer.com.

Alan's turn:

The Grassroots Revolution
By Alan Kennedy-Shaffer

With talk of tea parties and taxes dominating the Rush Limbaugh Republican agenda, the time has come to bring Barack Obama’s grassroots revolution back into the spotlight. From Minnesota to Missouri, longtime Republicans and apathetic Independents joined diehard Democrats in an extraordinary campaign that brought Americans together in a way not seen in decades. From Harrisburg to Hampton, organizers fanned out across long ignored neighborhoods, recruited thousands of volunteers, and mobilized millions of voters, sparking a movement for change.

The Obama Revolution, the first book published about Barack Obama’s historic presidential campaign by a former staffer, provides an in-the-trenches look at how the 44th President of the United States came from behind to win the presidency and sparked a movement that has changed the face of American politics forever. The energy of a citizenry invigorated by the opportunity to steer the ship of state cannot be adequately measured, but it must not be ignored. In the months leading up to Obama’s election last fall, something stirred in the American psyched. Consider this excerpt:

There may seem to be little in common between the young children who scampered after me in the housing projects on Allison Hill, eager for Obama stickers, and the Democrats in Westmoreland County who turned out in droves for rural action meetings. But below the surface, they all hope for a brighter future for their children and they share a belief that America can—and will—change. . . . Empowered to serve as the backbone of Obama’s well organized, well funded, quintessentially grassroots presidential campaign, young people left their jobs, their schools, and their homes, in order to recruit and mobilize an army of volunteers committed to positive change.

This brief passage in The Obama Revolution begins to tell the story of the grassroots revolution that turned a long shot candidacy into a transformative presidency. How Obama became president matters because it says more about the American people than it does about Obama. What made Obama’s campaign different was our ability to reach across the aisle, across neighborhoods, and across the street, to voters from all walks of life. To me, it was electrifying when I rang the doorbell and a young child saw my Obama sticker, ran back inside, and yelled to his mother, “Barack Obama’s at the door!”

Sometimes powerful, sometimes poignant, always hopeful, The Obama Revolution includes encounters with Barack Obama, insight into why thousands of organizers left their jobs, their schools, and their families to join the most organized presidential campaign in American history. It is the story of how thousands of organizers spurred millions of Americans to register to vote and recruited millions of volunteers. At once meticulously researched and motivational, The Obama Revolution tells the story of a generation of young people—most under 30—who dropped everything to get involved.

Although we will never agree on everything, we must continue to hope that the change we fought so hard for at every door, on every call, and in every neighborhood, will have a fighting chance of coming to America. Our grassroots revolution goes beyond tea parties promoted by Fox News and ranking Republicans, and beyond knee-jerk animosity toward the taxes that pay for our highways, our schools, our parks, and our national security. Our revolution is about the ability of Americans young and old, black and white, gay and straight, to unite behind the change that we still believe in.

Alan Kennedy-Shaffer is the author, most recently, of “The Obama Revolution.”

On Inauguration Day: How Obama Tackled the Tough Issue of the Economy along the Campain Trail

In celebration of Barack Obama's Inauguration, we are featuring an excerpt from Earl Ofari Hutchinson's book, How Obama Won--which we reviewed here.


It Was Still the Economy Stupid

In a two minute nationally paid campaign broadcast billed as a "presidential style" talk to the nation in mid September, 2008, Obama talked about one issue, and one issue only, the economy. There wasn't much new in his talk. But it really didnʼt have to be anything new. Polls by then showed the economy; or rather the train wreck of the economy was really the only thing on voterʼs minds.

Obama again vowed to cut taxes for the middle-class, clean up Wall Street's mess, and create lots of jobs for everybody. He aimed to firmly seize back the high ground on the defining issue of economic misery of the middle and working class, the Bush-GOP caused economic misery that is. This was widely regarded as his sure fire ticket to the White House. It was a play on the old political truism that it's the economy stupid that wins or loses presidential elections.

From day one of campaign 2008 the enshrined article of political faith was that voters were so furious at Bush for causing massive plant closings, farm failures, corporate bungling, fraud and corruption, the housing collapse, soaring gas prices, and the wholesale flight of jobs to the far corners of the planet, that all a Democratic presidential contender had to do to win was pass the breath test on Election Day.

Excerpt taken from How Obama Won by Earl Ofari Hutchinson

You can read more about Earl's opinions on our new President and the economy at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/earl-ofari-hutchinson/its-not-always-the-econom_b_127229.html

Order How Obama Won at Amazon.com

How Obama Won by Earl Ofari Hutchinson--Book Review

On January 20th, the world will witness an historic event--the inauguration of Barack Obama. If you seek to learn more about how Barak Obama inspired a nation and captured the White House, you need to look no further than the engaging and fair, How Obama Won by Earl Ofari Hutchinson.

A leading political analyst and social commentator, Hutchinson follows up his last two titles, How the GOP Can Keep the White House, How the Democrats Can Take it Back and The Ethnic Presidency: How Race Decides the Race to the White House, with an exploration into Obama's campaign from start to finish: what he did, what he didn't do, and what challenges he faced.

Americans' desire for change--something that Hilliary Clinton as an insider couldn't provide, how important or unimportant race would be in the 2008 Election, the state of the economy and the Wall Street Crisis of September 2008, Sarah Palin, and other issues that floated around from the day that Obama announced his intentions to seek the Democratic nomination, are put under a fair and balanced light to illuminate for the reader the elements that came into play and the decisions that were made to help catapult Barak Obama to the highest position in the land.

Conservatives, liberals and everyone in between will appreciate Hutchinson's writing style that allows even someone who does not regularly follow politics to understand his opinions, and yet, How Obama Won contains the right type of information to attract readers who have a working knowledge of the American political landscape. I can see this book being blogged about for months to come as polticial anaylsts dissect every facet of Obama's campaign strategy and continue to follow Obama's presidency.

While some readers may not agree with Hutchinson's assessment of Barack Obama as a "moderate centrist Democrat" and the author's comments about the Bush Administration, Hutchinson does an excellent job of showing how dissatisfaction with the current Administration played a huge role in Obama's win.

How Obama Won by Earl Ofari Hutchinson will not only be enjoyed by adults with an interest in politics, it would make superb high school and college reading material for social studies and current events classes of all kinds.


Title: How Obama Won
Autor: Earl Ofari Hutchinson
Publisher: BookSurge Publishing
ISBN-10: 143921929X
ISBN-13: 978-1439219294
SRP: $13.95 (U.S. Paperback) $9.95 (U.S. eBook)