Book Review: "Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama"

I did it. I read it. If there’s just one thing that the New York Times review of David Garrow’s massive biography of Barack Obama got right, it was this:

“Rising Star, the voluminous 1,460-page biography of Barack Obama by David J. Garrow, is a dreary slog of a read.”¹

This book is not for the faint-hearted or easily bored. It’s also not for the Obama sycophant. It was largely panned by liberal media. In fact the NYT reviewer could barely disguise her disdain and horror at Garrow’s daring, month by month, meticulously researched and detailed accounting of her star’s life:

“…a bloated, tedious and — given its highly intemperate epilogue — ill-considered book that is in desperate need of editing, and way more exhausting than exhaustive… In the absence of thoughtful analysis or a powerful narrative through line, Garrow’s book settles for barraging the reader with a cascade of details — seemingly in hopes of creating a kind of pointillist picture.”²

I will grant the reviewer the caveat of exhausting. Garrow’s ability to present such minutiae and detail to Obama’s life was plodding. From birth to college, from Harvard to Chicago, from social activist to professor, from professor to legislator and finally to the presidency, Garrow tracks Obama’s steps like a bloodhound. Even in the days prior to social media, Garrow tracks down a plethora of conversations, relationships, influencers and foibles of a very interesting character.

Garrow refuses to opine about Obama. Rather, he allows details, conversations and over a hundred pages of footnotes lead the reader to conclusions about the man. Here’s a few of my thoughts about Barack Obama after reading the book:

• Barack Obama ain’t no dummy. While he may be painfully introverted and pridefully aloof to some, he was beloved by the students he taught in Chicago. It’s clear he is a deep thinker. He prefers concepts to concrete actions, however.

• Obama is not just an idealist. He’s an ideologue. His sweeping vision for justice, social activism and later political footballs like same sex marriage were all calculated. Obama historically avoided conflict, preferring instead to attempt Solomonic solutions, working with both sides to achieve compromise.

• Obama “became” black as a political expediency. He broke up with a long-time lover because a mixed race relationship would not be advantageous in his pursuit of influence (never mind the fact that Obama himself was the product of a mixed race marriage). In Chicago, he was often criticized by the blacks there as not being truly black.

• Even before he had graduated Harvard, Barack had become something of a curiosity. He leveraged his role as the president of the Harvard Law Review into a book deal and subsequently (and cheekily) wrote his memoirs Dreams from my Father at age 29. The book got mixed reviews. For those who had known him, Obama was unrecognizable in his own book. For those who didn’t know him, the book received critical acclaim. Yet, it eventually fell out of print. It wasn’t until his address to the Democratic National Convention in 2004 as a one-term Senator from Illinois that he crashed national headlines. The book was republished and became an overnight bestseller after that.

Barack enthusiastically told one later questioner that "I love to write," that "I love fiction, I love to read fiction, but I'm not sure I have enough talent to write fiction." Yet for once in his life, if only for one sole time, Barack Obama sold himself short. Dreams From My Father was not a memoir or an autobiography; it was instead, in multitudinous ways, without any question a work of historical fiction. True to that genre, it featured many true-to-life figures and a bevy of accurately described events that indeed had occurred, but it employed the techniques and literary license of a novel, and its most important composite character was the narrator himself.³

• The world of social activism as documented so extensively from Obama’s Chicago experiences appears as nothing more than a money grab. Very few programs, for which grants and tax dollars are allocated had lasting impact on the Chicago school system or in the neighborhoods that Obama’s organizations claimed to help.

• It was with this doubtful productivity that Obama entered politics in Illinois. In 1996, he was able to run uncontested for the Illinois State Senate. He succeeded in doing this by protesting the candidacies of four other competitors’ petitions. In 2000, he lost an election to come a congressman from Illinois in the U.S. House of Representatives.

• Obama struggled with his loss and considered leaving politics. Especially when the tragic events of September 11, 2011 occurred, and he realized that the similarity of his name Obama with Osama Bin Laden could forever brand him negatively. Michelle was a vocal opponent of Barack pursing politics - particularly because of their continuing struggle with personal finances.

• Obama’s voice was his singular, notable gift. When he spoke, people paid attention. Through his activism and later involvement in Illinois politics, Obama learned to refine, craft and articulate himself in inspiring and sometimes even hypnotic ways.

• Many along the way predicted and cast vision for Obama that he would be America’s “first black president.” However, Obama always took himself very seriously and felt called to a higher purpose.

• That Obama was “made” became eerily obvious as Garrow’s book moved into national politics. Obama became surrounded by a professional group of image makers - nearly all liberal elites - who capitalized on Obama’s articulateness, his attractiveness and his race. Garrow extensively footnotes how the mainstream media fawned over Obama after his rousing and inspiring 2004 DNC address, using the ordained chorus of “rising star.”

• For all Obama’s vaunted rhetoric about hope and change, his years in the White House subsequently collapsed into national disenchantment and disappointment. He was divisive and race relationships in America declined under his presidency and after. Obama refused to work in a bipartisan way as he’d modeled in Illinois, and not ironically, the epilogue of Garrow’s book is subtitled “The President Did Not Attend, as He Was Golfing.”

While Barack Obama remains stunningly popular to many, he offers little in the way of a resume of accomplishment other than spit and polish. The subtitle of the book, “The Making of Barack Obama,” while understandable, is not really fair. I walked away from Garrow’s book with a sad appreciation of Obama. He had more to offer. He could have been truly great as a President. It was the corrupting influence of power and money that deflated him even as his vision became little more than getting what he thought he deserved. After a lifetime of struggling with money, the Obamas now live the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

Garrow’s book details many friendships, courtships, and familial relationships that were jettisoned along the way of Obama’s rise to fame, influence and microphones.

Did I vote for Barack Obama?

In 2008, I wrote I am saying no to Obama on Tuesday and explained why. Then in 2012, I wrote, “Four years ago I voted against Barack Obama more than I voted for John McCain. I was concerned about Obama’s lack of experience. However, when he won, I celebrated that America had elected its first African-American President. I prayed for him, and I hoped that his rhetoric would translate into reality.”⁴

Even after reading a 1000+ page biography of Obama, he’s as unknown to me now as he was in 2008 when I said he was “one of the most vague, slippery un-characters that I’ve seen in many years. Who is he really? For all the media attention and hype, we have yet to really understand what he stands for and what he really thinks apart from the liberal machinery of the Democratic Party.”⁵

Who do you think Barack Obama is?

1. A Long, Long Look at Obama’s Life, Mostly Before the White House, by Patricia Wall (New York Times: May 2017)

2. Ibid.

3. Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama, by David Garrow (William Collins: 2017), 537.

4. I voted. (journeyguy.com: November 6, 2012)

5. I am saying no to Obama on Tuesday (journeyguy.com: November 3, 2008)