DecryptionIn his memoirs (published by Fayard), the former American president looks back on his beginnings in politics at the end of the 1990s, and on his first years in the White House, between family memories and the complexity of the exercise of power.
Delivered. Beyond the media scum, what to rememberA promised land (Fayard, 890 pages, 32 euros), the memoirs of Barack Obama? The length already: more than 800 pages, and that represents only the first volume (only Clinton made longer in less time: 1000 pages for My life, in 2004). The 44e President took three years and eight months to write his book, longer than any of his predecessors except Nixon, who admittedly spent years embroiled in the Watergate lawsuits.
Almost 900,000 copies were sold on day one (slightly better than Michelle’s book, To become, published in November, “But I am not bragging about it”, slipped the former president). Dozens of interviews, a literary tsunami as a media plan. Obama even posted his playlist on social media “In honor of the publication” of the book, as if the reader needed to know what the President of the United States listens to when he decides to increase troops in Afghanistan or regulate methane emissions. Three weeks ago, Donald Trump occupied all the space.
These days, we only see Obama. A whiff of nostalgia has gripped the democratic country, as “A hot bath”, commented columnist Kathleen Parker in the Washington post. A return to pre-Trump civilization, almost to reason. A prelude to the after.
The humiliation of Donald Trump
The story begins with his meeting with Michelle in 1989 in Chicago, and the start of his political career. He stopped at a fateful moment of his presidency, in the spring of 2011. On the night of 1er May, elite Navy Seals slaughter Osama bin Laden in his refuge in Abbottabad, Pakistan; the day before, April 30, the president sacrificed to the tradition of the White House press correspondents’ dinner.
In his intervention – a parody monologue as is the custom – he humiliated Donald Trump, one of the guests (seated at the Washington Post, which had not yet been bought by Jeff Bezos). The real estate mogul – and arsonist, already, of conspiracy – questioned for weeks the authenticity of the birth certificate of the first African-American president of the United States. That night, Obama let off steam. He is ironic about the “Deep experience” the host of “Celebrity Apprentice” and his ability to referee cooking competitions, “The kind of decisions that keep me awake at night.” The room explodes with laughter but Trump has a bad face, and it is on this day, if we are to believe the Washington legend, that he swears revenge.
You have 80.65% of this article to read. The rest is for subscribers only.
