Barack Obama and the Politics of Redemption
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- £36.99
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- £36.99
Publisher Description
Every new president raises many questions in the public mind. Because Barack Obama was a relative newcomer to the national political scene, he raised more questions than most. Would he prove to be a pragmatic centrist or would his politics of hope ultimately flounder on the rocky shoals of America’s deep political divisions? What of his leadership style? How would the uncommonly calm character he demonstrated on the campaign trail shape Obama’s political style as commander-in-chief?
Based on extensive biographical, psychological, and political research and analysis, noted political psychologist Stanley Renshon follows Obama’s presidency through the first two years. He digs into the question of who is the real Obama and assesses the advantages and limitations that he brings to the presidency. These questions cannot be answered without recourse to psychological analysis. And they cannot be answered without psychological knowledge of presidential leadership and the presidency itself. Renshon explains that Obama’s ambition has been fueled by a desire for redemption—his own, that of his parents, and ultimately for the country he now leads, which has enormous consequences for his choices as president of a politically divided America.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Renshon's third successive psycho-political portrait of a sitting president examines Barack Obama's life and record to map the "psychological contours" of his personality and presidency. A certified psychoanalyst and political science professor, Renshon (The Psychological Assessment of Presidential Candidates) utilizes a political psychology framework to analyze information from biographies, speeches, news, polls, and Obama's own writings. His keys are Obama's relationships with his absent father, often-absent mother, wife, and others as well as his search for racial identity. Whatever Renshon's regard for Obama the man, it does not carry over to Obama the president; he claims the president possesses a "witches brew" of traits that he calls a "recipe for political disaster." Renshon then uses polling data to demonstrate how Obama's policies failed to reflect the electorate's opinions and how he ignored or dismissed feedback, resulting in midterm election losses. Though the author's aim was to understand Obama's promotion of national and personal redemption through a transformative agenda, his assumptions and analyses result in a book that reads more like partisan criticism than unbiased psychological diagnosis or behavioral review.
