Obama's Challenge

Customer Reviews

• Outstanding book on multiple levels  Oct 13, 2008 (45 of 49 found this helpful)

  Ronald Reagan famously (and wrongly) said that government wasn't the solution to the problem; it was the problem. In fact, it is the solution to the problem. We have now suffered through thirty years of a federal government that has been intentionally impaired so that it will not function for the American people, but instead has worked almost exclusively for the needs and whims of big business. And big business isn't the solution to the problem; it is the problem. I've been arguing this with free marketers since the eighties when I engaged in countless debates with University of Chicago business school and economics students while I was a graduate student there. There they unleashed such asinine theories as that moldy oldie, "The private sector can do things more efficiently than the public sector." Well, no. The mess in the attempted rebuilding in Iraq and the Gulf Coast have proven that, if it was ever in doubt (and multiple independent studies have reinforced the common sense idea that the private sector is certainly not more efficient than the public, and is definitely less cost efficient, since they have to figure in a profit margin). The whole trickle down idea, which has been put forth repeatedly over the past century, has been shown to be false over and over and over again. As Will Rogers put in so well in the twenties, some people think gold is like water: put it at the top and it will just trickle down. But, Rogers insisted, gold isn't like water at all. Put it at the top and it just stays there. Which is precisely what has happened in the past thirty years, as real wages of the middle class have lowered, as the wealth has been increasingly concentrated in the hands of a tiny fraction of the population (in 1979 29% of the wealth was in the hands of the top 1% of the population, while today around 50% is in the hands of the top 1% -- and comically, 18% of the people in the US believe they are in the top 1%), and those living below the poverty line have increased. The whole idea of a self-regulating and self-correcting free market has been from top to bottom an unmitigated farce for the vast majority of Americans. And that was BEFORE the recent collapse of Wall Street.
  
  Even more than when Robert Kuttner wrote this superb book (which follows other very fine analyses of the economic situation of our economy like EVERYTHING FOR SALE: THE VIRTUES AND LIMITS OF MARKETS and THE SQUANDERING OF AMERICA: HOW THE FAILURE OF OUR POLITICS OUR PROSPERITY), the current economic situation demands and calls out for the kinds of solutions proposed in this book. Unfortunately, 30 years of strongly held self-regulting market ideas have done immense damage to the economy (and it has to be remembered that Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton also held versions of the same economic ideas made more popular by Reagan and made ridiculous by George W. Bush -- and before the increasingly heard defense of Reagan be made that while Reagan was a true conservative, Bush is not, please recall that Reagan undersaw larger increases in spending as a part of GDP than Bush, most of it on military spending -- though to his credit, when Reagan saw the massive deficits his economic policy was building up he did the responsible thing and raised taxes). One one-star reviewer of this book mentioned Kuttner's appearance Colmes and Hannity's show. I strongly urge people to go to Youtube and view it. Yes, they called each other names (though Sean Hannity truly is an idiot and he truly does merely ape GOP talking points), but what that reviewer neglected to mention is that Hannity took great exception to Kuttner's claims that the economy was in a dire mess. Hannity insisted that the economy was in great shape, that Bush had performed miracles. This was a couple of days before Lehman Brothers went bankrupt and AIG had to seek a $70 billion line of credit from the Fed. My point is that Kuttner absolutely nailed what was wrong with the eco

• We need change!  Sep 12, 2008 (13 of 15 found this helpful)

  I downloaded this on my Kindle and was finished reading in a couple of days. This is a very fair and balanced book which is refreshing. It emphasizes the importance of our current state of the economy, health insurance etc. and the massive changes needed to fix them.
  I highly recommend this book.
  

• Outside the "economics box"  Sep 5, 2008 (13 of 15 found this helpful)

  Robert Kuttner has performed a service in Obama's Challenge by bringing to the Democratic nominee's attention the pitfalls to be faced by the next Administration. The USA is facing a profound transition. Our citizens must adjust to the diminished role the US plays, economically, militarily and in its influence. While adapting to this new global reality and the rise of China, India, Brazil, Russia and other nations, the next US President must deal with the severest financial crisis since the Great Depression and the urgent need to shift our economy from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy.
  
  I hope that Obama, David Axelrod, David Plouffe and all of his team will read Robert Kuttner's wise analysis and go beyond that outdated "economics box" so as to address more fully the systemic crises our next president will face.
  

• A positive assessment for a better future  Oct 27, 2008 (6 of 6 found this helpful)

  Robert Kuttner, the author of this book, has a rare ability to project a current reality forward in time, and surmise the resulting consequences of our present situation. His previous book, "The squandering of America: How the failure of our politics undermines our prosperity" (2007) detailed how the current financial crisis would unfold as a result of too much deregulation. In this book he discusses the ways in which a transformative presidency could address the challenges before our country in the current economic situation. His is a message of both sacrifice and hope. I recommend this book highly to any who have despaired over what our country has become.

• How Obama Can Be Great  Dec 2, 2008 (6 of 6 found this helpful)

  No one can deny Robert Kuttner's premise - our next President really has his work cut out for him. But Kuttner goes further; he makes a strong case for the notion that the next President will have to be a great president. His examples of greatness, in a transformative sense, are Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson.
  
  In Kuttner's view, each of these Presidents entered office without an agenda of dramatic change, but the circumstances they found, once in office, forced each of them to transcend politics to become the kind of leaders the nation desperately needed.
  
  The Republican, Abraham Lincoln, had no plans to abolish slavery when he ran for office in 1860, but grew in his realization that slavery was immoral - and must be addressed. His eloquence and his political gifts, along with the Civil War itself, allowed him to end that blight on the nation's conscience.
  
  Franklin Roosevelt was committed to budget balancing and budget cutting when he campaigned in 1932. What he found upon assuming office was a deepening economic depression and a nation demoralized. He used his gifts of optimism and communication in a dramatic search for practical - not ideological - solutions.
  
  Lyndon Johnson assumed the Presidency after John Kennedy's assassination, and found a highly segregated nation. His awakening to the plight of African-Americans was nothing short of remarkable for a Texas politician. His compassion and tenacity - with the passage of the Voting Rights Act - finally made possible the fulfillment of the promise of Lincoln.
  
  Kuttner believes that the current crisis gives Obama this opportunity to grow into this kind of transformative leader we need to move forward in economic equity, health care reform and education. Obama is not there yet. His health care plan, for example, is not transformative to the degree we need. But of the two choices, Obama has the intellect, the character and the temperament to become a great leader.
  
  Leaders, after all, do compromise and collaborate and understand politics; however, they also take us to places we have not imagined previously. They aspire us to rise above our old ways. They lead us to a new vision.
  
  Not every President has the talent to lead us in this transformative way. George W. Bush, for example, when faced with a growing concern about global warming - decided to ignore the evidence. Entering office to decades long stagnation of middle class wages - he cut taxes on the wealthy and boosted deregulation. Following the tragedy of 9-11, he pushed for the invasion of a weak country and promoted the torture of prisoners. His leadership didn't call out our better selves - it exacerbated our weaknesses.
  
  Kuttner promotes a number of transformative ideas for consideration. One that deserves consideration is the professionalization of the service employees of the nation's social service sector. We can all agree that the nation's children and elderly deserve high quality care, but current policies and regulations push the service equation towards lower prices, not higher quality.
  
  The front line staff of America's nursing homes, residential treatment programs and day care centers are largely poorly trained, poorly educated, short-term employees. Private children's homes in KY face frighteningly high turnover rates every year. Higher governmental standards could force the hiring of better educated and more intrinsically motivated workers. In turn, as higher skilled workers demand higher wages, these good jobs could become a decent wage option for workers displaced by globalization and the decline of manufacturing.
  
  Our vulnerable children and aging population would receive better care, and these newly enhanced jobs could not be outsourced to other nations.
  
  Kuttner leaves us where Obama entered the race - with the possibilities of hope. Hea