You must read the book Obama’s Challenge: America’s Economic Crisis and the Power of a Transformative Presidency by Robert Kuttner.  This book and author were the subjects of the interview mentioned in my previous post, Obama’s Challenge: A Transformative Opportunity.

Since Lyndon Johnson’s administration got mired in the war in Viet Nam in the late 1960s, a fog has descended over politics in the United States. In this fog we have forgotten what a positive force government can be. Not since Robert Kennedy quoted George Bernard Shaw, “You see things as they are and ask, ‘Why?’ I dream things as they never were and ask, ‘Why not?'” have I been lifted from this fog the way this book lifts me. This book reminds me why I want to be a Progressive Democrat.

This book starts off by putting into words all the reasons why I have been an Obama supporter from nearly the beginning of his presidential candidacy. It explains what qualities I saw in Obama that made me think he could be the transformative president of the book’s title. There was no other candidate who came any where near having these qualities to the degree that Obama did.

The book goes on to explain why even the Clinton administration did a disservice to the ideals of progressive politics. If I were tempted to think that Clinton’s tenure might have represented the best that could be, this book lifts my sights higher. Kuttner further explains how Obama’s differences from Clinton could lead to a much better outcome.

Kuttner devotes a large portion of the book to describing a set of steps that Obama should take to lift the country out of  the predicament in which it finds itself.

Read the interview of Doris Kearns Goodwin by Robert Kuttner that furthered the inspiration to write this book.

A search of this blog will show you a number of posts that refer to the ideas in the book.

See also my review of The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by Barack Obama