Aug 042013
The Amateur
Klein, who is known for getting the inside scoop on everyone from the Kennedys to the Clintons, reveals never-before-published details about the Obama administration’s political inner workings, as well as Barack and Michelle’s personal lives.
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slanted but worth reading,
Those who think Obama walks on water and have their minds made up will not like this book. Those who think Obama is the devil will love it, but have probably heard all the stories already anyway. For those who fall in between, I think the book is worth reading. Yes, it’s slanted, but if you read beyond that you’ll come away with some insights into this president and his administration. The first chapters are the most incendiary and the least informative since they rehash old stuff. But the second half gets into some behind the scenes stuff that’s worth knowing. What disturbs me most is how far in over his head Obama is and how he surrounds himself with people who feed his ego and/or protect him rather than providing him with a broad understanding of the issues. He is a politician not a leader and I find that both sad and frightening.
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A Can’t Put Down Book that Will Withstand the Obama Attack Machine,
I bought Edward Klein’s The Amateur the day it came out; the day Klein revealed on Sean Hannity’s radio show that he had audio tapes of the pastor that Obama threw under the bus, Jeremiah Wright, stating that in 2008 Obama crony Eric Whitaker had offered him $150K to keep his mouth shut until after the election. Contrary to the naysayers of Klein’s previous exposé on Hillary Clinton, critics’ ad hominem attacks on Klein regarding The Amateur this time are ringing false, as the Top Ten slot on Amazon’s best seller list shows. Klein names names, interviewing over two hundred people for the book, including Obama’s two-decades-long former doctor, who makes the claim that Obama is basically a hollow shell, with no real emotion, and no connection to people. Klein “has the goods,” so to speak: in regard to the Eric Whitaker bribery, it is not merely a hidden microphone that caught Wright stating this. It is within an open, 3 1/2 hour interview, where Wright not only states he was bribed, but has the email to prove it. Wright makes other statements, such as Obama’s Muslim background, his fickle belief in Christianity, and his two-decades-long allegiance to Trinity United Church of Christ for purely political reasons.
I downloaded the book to my Kindle within hours of its release, and read it over a day and a half period, only pausing to sleep. Probably the two most enjoyable-to-read revelations are that 1. Bill Clinton urged Hillary to challenge Obama in 2012. 2. The Kennedy clan despise Obama, despite deceased Ted Kennedy’s tireless support of the Community Organizer-in-Chief.
An anecdote is described where Bill and Hillary Clinton are having an argument that took place over several days (a screaming match actually, with a dozen people present); that, because Obama had basically destroyed the economy, caused the downgrade of the U.S.’s credit rating for the first time in history, etc., etc.; that Obama was, according to Bill Clinton, an “Amateur” (this is the source of the title of the book); that Hillary needed to challenge Obama in 2012 in order to save the country from sliding off the cliff.
The Kennedy clan anecdote is jaw-dropping. All of the Kennedy clan (save Robert Kennedy, Jr.) had stood behind Obama in 2008. But after Obama’s coronation and repeated miffs by the First Family: 1. The Obamas ignored an invitation to the Kennedy Compound while vacation at Martha’s Vineyard. 2. Michelle Obama treated Caroline Kennedy (daughter of JFK) like hired help while at the White House, shaking her hand coldly, taking a quick photo, and making a quick exit–after these and other miffs the Kennedy royalty at a pow wow had had enough (at one point Robert Kennedy, Jr. shattered a glass in his hand) and got the message from the Obamas loud and clear: rich people are evil, and wanted no more to do with the former community organizers.
Contrary to Obama’s ‘Attack Watch’ claim of the book being totally discredited (whereby they don’t actually reference anything in the book, but simply go on an ad hominem attack), the book is meticulously researched and at the same time highly readable. It is at the time of this writing #9 on Amazon’s bestseller list, and hopefully it will reach #1, whereby at that point the majority of Americans will have read about the current “Amateur” in office being completely unqualified for the job; and realize that when a person is unqualified for a job, are incompetent, that the only remedy is either resignation or being fired.
I vote for being fired.
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THE BEST BOOK ON OBAMA TO DATE,
To the best of my knowledge, no sitting president has had more books written about him in his first (and, if
The Amateur has anything to say about it, his only) term in office. And none has so succinctly, yet completely dealt with its subject. The Amateur is both enlightening and entertaining; it is so well written that it just sweeps you along, making it almost impossible to put down. I am both a political activist and a prodigious reader; on both scores The Amateur ranks as one of the best books that I have ever read. It is Obama in a nutshell, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to any one who both loves reading and America. Ken Eliasberg
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