The Long Alliance
The Imperfect Union of Joe Biden and Barack Obama
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- $279.00
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- $279.00
Descripción editorial
New York Magazine national correspondent Gabriel Debenedetti reveals an inside look at the historically close, complicated, occasionally co-dependent, and at-times uncertain relationship between Joe Biden and Barack Obama.
Delving far deeper than the simplistic “bromance” narrative that’s long held the public eye, The Long Alliance reveals the past, present, and future of the unusual partnership, detailing its development, its twists and turns, its ruptures and reunions, and its path to this pivotal moment for each man’s legacy.
The true story of this relationship, from 2003 into 2022, is significantly more layered and consequential than is widely understood. The original mismatch between the veteran Washington traditionalist and the once-in-a-generation outsider has transformed repeatedly in ways that have molded not just four different presidential campaigns and two different political parties, but also wars, a devastating near-depression, movements for social equality, and the fight for the future of American democracy. The bond between them has been, at various times over the past two decades, tense, affectionate, nonexistent, and ironclad — but it has always been surprising. Now it is shaping a second presidential administration, and the future of the world as we know it.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
