Confidence Men by Ron Suskind

Confidence Men by Ron Suskind hit shelves September 20, 2011. Ron Suskind, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, recounts the US financial hysteria of the Obama Administration era.

The book is a composition in story-telling form that relies on the journalist's interviews with the public figures and White House employees. There is, of course, other sides of the story. One must always keep in mind that when writing and talking about politics and journalism reporting, that there are many sides and one story always looks different to another person.

Suskind illustrates how the President learned of the impending financial crisis that was inevitable, and the reasoning behind the American President's ideas on how to help the failing US economy.

Confidence Men continually takes the view that President Obama lacks leadership skills to make timely and informed decisions mostly due to his lack of experience and thus not knowing what to do when the crisis struck.

Suskind compared Obama to Neville Chamberlain, the English Prime Minister in the late 1930s who, as Sunskind put it, stepped aside when he realized he wasn't the best man for the job.(Wikipedia reports Chamberlain realized the Labour and Liberal
parties wold not support him in office and he saw that the country needed to be united in their support for their leader). Chamberlain resigned from his post and Winston Churchill took his place. Suskind uses Confidence Men to say that Obama should dedicate his time to preparing for the next President in line who can lead, rather than attempting to lead himself because he does not yet possess the proper leadership skills.

Confidence Men chronicles pieces of the Presidential race that Senator Obama won, covering details of how he won some of the hardest states in the campaign and out played Hillary Clinton with his charisma, finesse and seemingly unalterable calmness.

Confidence Men is a great book to read if you need a summary of the Obama Administration from the winning of states in his election up until early 2011.