Renegade

The Making of a President

By: Richard Wolffe

Narrated by: Richard Wolffe

Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

Before the White House and Air Force One, before the TV ads and the enormous rallies, there was the real Barack Obama: A man wrestling with the momentous decision to run for the presidency, feeling torn about leaving behind a young family, and figuring out how to win the biggest prize in politics.

This audiobook is the previously untold and epic story of how a political newcomer with no money and an alien name grew into the world’s most powerful leader. But it is also a uniquely intimate portrait of the person behind the iconic posters and the Secret Service code name Renegade. Drawing on a dozen unplugged interviews with the candidate and president, as well as 21 months covering his campaign as it traveled from coast to coast, Richard Wolffe answers the simple yet enduring question about Barack Obama: Who is he? Based on Wolffe’s unprecedented access to Obama, Renegade reveals the making of a president, both on the campaign trail and before he ran for high office. It explains how the politician who emerged in an extraordinary election learned the personal and political skills to succeed during his youth and early career. With cool self-discipline, calculated risk taking, and simple storytelling, Obama developed the strategies he would need to survive the onslaught of the Clintons and John McCain, and build a multimillion-dollar machine to win a historic contest.

In Renegade, Richard Wolffe shares with us his front-row seat at Obama’s announcement to run for president on a frigid day in Springfield, and his victory speech on a warm night in Chicago. We fly on the candidate’s plane and ride in his bus on an odyssey across a country in crisis; stand next to him at a bar on the night he secures the nomination; and are backstage as he delivers his convention speech to a stadium crowd and a transfixed national audience. From a teacher’s office in Iowa to the Oval Office in Washington, we see and hear Barack Obama with an immediacy and honesty never witnessed before. Renegade provides not only an account of Obama’s triumphs, but also examines his many personal and political trials. We see Obama wrestling with race and politics, as well as his former pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright. We see him struggling with life as a presidential candidate, a campaign that falters for most of its first year, and his reaction to a surprise defeat in the New Hampshire primary. And we see him relying on his personal experience, as well as meticulous polling, to pass the presidential test in foreign and economic affairs. Renegade is an essential guide to understanding President Barack Obama and his trusted inner circle of aides and friends. It is also a riveting and enlightening first draft of history and political psychology.

©2009 Richard Wolffe (P)2009 Random House

Critic reviews

"The first of the President Obama books - and a good one - insightful, thorough, and straight." (Ben Bradlee, The Washington Post)
"A superb achievement. With an almost painterly eye, compelling insights, and extraordinary access to Barack Obama and his inner circle, Richard Wolffe's Renegade tells the hidden, dramatic story of the 2008 campaign and also reveals much we did not know about the 44th president's life before politics. (Michael Beschloss)
"I learned something new on practically every page." (Gwen Ifill)

Realy nice and entertaining

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I certainly would. It paints a very broad picture of Obama as a person and the traits that made him president.

What other book might you compare Renegade to and why?

I read it just after Tony Blairs "A journey" and found them quite comparable for the part of campaigning and winning. Both were good an interesting stories.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The whole concept of campaigning and intrigues is interesting but in describing Obamas battles with oponents he often gave me this "got-you-feeling". These constant got-you moments makes the story roll and is good entertainment.