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Barack Obama - A Promised Land Hardcover $34 + Delivery ($0 with Prime) @ Amazon AU

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Appears to be the best price on the hardcover version.


In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency-a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil.

Obama takes readers on a compelling journey from his earliest political aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus victory that demonstrated the power of grassroots activism to the watershed night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation's highest office.

Reflecting on the presidency, he offers a unique and thoughtful exploration of both the awesome reach and the limits of presidential power, as well as singular insights into the dynamics of U.S. partisan politics and international diplomacy. Obama brings readers inside the Oval Office and the White House Situation Room, and to Moscow, Cairo, Beijing, and points beyond. We are privy to his thoughts as he assembles his cabinet, wrestles with a global financial crisis, takes the measure of Vladimir Putin, overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds to secure passage of the Affordable Care Act, clashes with generals about U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, tackles Wall Street reform, responds to the devastating Deepwater Horizon blowout, and authorizes Operation Neptune's Spear, which leads to the death of Osama bin Laden.

A Promised Land is extraordinarily intimate and introspective-the story of one man's bet with history, the faith of a community organizer tested on the world stage. Obama is candid about the balancing act of running for office as a Black American, bearing the expectations of a generation buoyed by messages of "hope and change," and meeting the moral challenges of high-stakes decision-making. He is frank about the forces that opposed him at home and abroad, open about how living in the White House affected his wife and daughters, and unafraid to reveal self-doubt and disappointment. Yet he never wavers from his belief that inside the great, ongoing American experiment, progress is always possible.

This beautifully written and powerful book captures Barack Obama's conviction that democracy is not a gift from on high but something founded on empathy and common understanding and built together, day by day.

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closed Comments

        • +4

          Do some research. The internet’s most highly respected news site ‘act for America’ says so. /s

        • +1

          Lol. I mean actually lol.

          Careful, the deep state might get you.

        • Yeah soon /s what a load of tripe.

      • same as howard, guillard and beasley have been charged with treason. google it.

    • I know & see you Boo Boo..

  • I'm generally a fan of Obama, but the description is rather cringeworthy

    I'm sure there are other instances, but I really hated the way he faked drinking the tap water from Flint, Michigan.

    I hate Trump so much, I have gone into thinking that the opposite of what he says is the truth/correct. Obviously this isn't healthy, but I'm aware of my flaw.

    • +3

      Obviously this isn't healthy, but I'm aware of my flaw.

      This is a good start.
      I'd be interested in what you think Obama's biggest policy achievements were without looking it up. It's surprising how many people think he's a great president based purely on his personality. (And conversely Trump is evil for the same reason). I prefer Policy over personality myself so I think Trump beats Obama in that.
      The Flint water thing was an embarrassment, an insight that past the smooth talk he's just another snake politician.
      For me the reveal was the drone strike he ordered on a US citizen without trial. He should be in prison for that. Pretty sure Trump never ordered any of his own citizens to be murdered.

      • +3

        citizens to be murdered

        Yep just for their citizens to die naturally via coronavirus.

        • +2

          Unless special laws were passed, Trump has as much power over individual state responses too COVID-19 as our own PM does - practically none. You can hardly blame the stupidity of the general public on Trump. Where state responses and lockdowns were more severe, virus numbers were on par with most of the world. Melbourne fared worse per capita than some US cities.

          • @thebargainhunter: This is lost on the great unwashed. Orange man bad!
            It's like when Scomo was on holiday during the bush fires, it was all his fault despite bush fires being under jurisdiction of the states.

  • +25

    Biden will have plenty of time in 12 months to scribble his memoirs from the dementia ward

  • +28

    8 years and done nothing. 2020 init

    • +13

      The so called pre elect bi den done nothing for 47 years, deaths and dominion voted for him.

      • +2

        Wow spitting out baseless Trump propoganda like it's the truth. Your mum must be so proud of your discerning intellect

        • -2

          Well some of it isn't baseless, just because the media says that doesn't make it so. There are actual cases of thousands of dead people registering to vote, there's cases of Dominion/Smartmatic being involved in fraud, there's are cases of witnesses been denied entry to counting stations, there are sworn affidavits from witnesses about potential fraud. These are all 'base'

          Now it may turn out that this is no widespread fraud, not enough to change this election result, but the claims are not 'baseless' there is base.
          A court would not even hear a case if it was baseless. And when there is 'base' it is the court's job to hear out those cases, regardless of the what the result turns out to be. Why doesn't the media let the courts do their job and report on that rather than making up the news?

          The irony of your post is that you call out the OP for spitting out baseless claims when you've done the exact same thing.

          • +4

            @1st-Amendment: You obviously haven't heard basically all Trumps legal cases are being thrown out as they have absolutely no basis for a hearing? Ok he might win a couple on small scale errors but what's the point it's not enough to change the result its a pointless and pedantic waste of time. All he's doing is trying to keep his base energized… unfortunately the lemmings just keep going along for the ride. That lying orange oompa loompa can go take his chaos and anarchy elsewhere

            • @4foxache:

              You obviously haven't heard basically all Trumps legal cases are being thrown out

              That's not true, but thanks for proving the point that you swallow media narrative without question. You aren't interested is what is actually happening, only wanting to hear the news that confirms your bias.

              • @1st-Amendment: What's not true? Give me one upheld and factual case of Trump succeeding in proving there was 'wide spread' voter fraud? The only difference after the recount is Biden lead is even bigger. 6M more people voted for him get over it… it shows how broken the system is Trump lost the popular vote in 2016 yet still won… how is that a system for the people when the majority of people didn't even want Trump in the first place? Good luck blind freddy you're going to need it to succeed in this life. Unfortunately you're still naïve enough to not realise all Trump is doing is sowing doubt in your mind and discrediting the media for telling the truth to try and save face… one day you'll wake up and realise you've been had.

                • @4foxache:

                  all Trumps legal cases are being thrown out

                  That's not true,

                  What's not true?

                  Reading is not your strong point?

                  Some cases are still in progress being heard by courts. So the statement they were all thrown out is false.

                  it shows how broken the system is

                  No it just shows how lightweights like yourself don't understand how the system works.

    • +16

      Dems only had congress for the first 2 years of Obama's presidency, in which he passed the greatest healthcare reform in decades.

      If you're complaining he did nothing then complain about Mitch McConnell and his self proclaimed 'graveyard' of bills he didn't even let the senate vote on.

      • The best healthcare reform? You must be mistaken it with the most complicated healthcare policy to give exclusive free money to people who don't contribute any tax (as long as you get a job, premiums go up and benefits go down, unlike in Australia your medicare premium goes up but benefits stay the same), and Obama care even covers for some illegal migrants. Do your homework.

    • +12

      Remember the time that Trump drank that glass of water and everyone got excited

      That was the most memorable achievement of his presidency (That and the covefe tweet)

      Well at least we're dumb enough to vote in reality TV stars here in OZ yet

      The first President to be unpopular enough to lose the mid-terms in 30 years. Sad!

      • That was the most memorable achievement of his presidency

        I'd be interested in what you think Obama's biggest policy achievements were without looking it up?

        A few of Trump's so you can compare:
        biggest tax cuts
        biggest economy
        lowest unemployment
        lowest unemployment for Blacks and Hispanics (so racist to make them get jobs…)
        first President in 40 years not to send American troops into any new war
        achieved energy independence for the first time in nearly a century
        took no salary
        brokered 2 historic peace deals between Israel and middle east
        pacified the North Korea threat
        facilitated the fastest pandemic vaccine production in history

        Outside of ACA I'm struggling to think what else Obama did in his 8 years?

        • +2

          The unemployment in the US is higher that it was in the Great Depression

          Obama's policies saw a continual dropping since the mess that Bush left in 2008, and Trump made a huge mess of it. You just have to look at the graph here how unemployment dropped considerably as soon as Obama steps in in 2008:

          https://i.insider.com/5eb5534bfc593d52c449336a

          https://www.businessinsider.com.au/april-jobs-report-unemplo…

          Trump has left the US in a major mess. Protests, riots, unemployment, the highest deficit ever (because of those tax cuts) and a depression level economy

          Its pretty obvious why he's so unpopular - Who would have thought that electing a reality show star in to lead a country would be a complete balls up? Go figure

          • +1

            @murdercluck:

            The unemployment in the US is higher that it was in the Great Depression

            Crap: Unemployment was over 20% during the Great Depression, It's currently around 7%

            Obama's policies saw a continual dropping since the mess that Bush left in 2008, and Trump made a huge mess of it.

            Fact: Obama's recovery was slowest of any recession since WW2.
            Fact: Obama made the statement in 2016 that the jobs weren't coming back.
            Fact: Trump took the 5% unemployment he inherited down to 3.5%, the lowest since WW2

            Its pretty obvious why he's so unpopular

            Yeah it's called TDS, and emotionally fragile people who can't separate personality from policy. Don't be that guy…

            • @1st-Amendment: Unemployment is at 7%, much higher than during Obama's Presidency. It does say something that he didn't trash the economy enough to match the worst year of the Great Depression, only trashed enough to be worse than the the later years - I guess that's better than nothing, but myself I don't really consider that much of an achievement to run an economy slightly better than great depression rates - That's a really crappy job

              It doesn't matter if he got unemployment low for a month or two by spending huge swaths of money and driving up the deficit to dangerously high levels, wasting money on a wall that's already crumbling down from a shoddy job

              Trump is leaving office with a trashed economy, record debt, extremely high unemployment, and rioting in the streets and few signs of improvement. This is how he'll be remembered. The quicker he leaves office the better so some moderately competent people can step in and fix things

              • +1

                @murdercluck:

                but myself I don't really consider that much of an achievement to run an economy slightly better than great depression rates

                You mean the strongest economy is US history? You are a clown…

                It doesn't matter if he got unemployment low for a month or two

                It dropped consistently for his first 3 years in office to the lowest unemployment since WW2!
                Then Covid screwed everyone. But even then the recovery is faster than most analysts predicted. You are a TDS clown living in clown world if you can't acknowledge this independently provable facts.

                It amazes me how many people in this thread have a view that is not supported by and facts or data. And when presented with actual data they brush it off, oh yeah but he has funny hair. Orange Man Bad!

                • @1st-Amendment: Economic performance under Trump was worse under Trump than Obama, even outside of pandemic years:
                  https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/gdp-growth-annual

                  This year, he's really screwed up the economy - Worst performance in almost a century

                  Either way, any true Aussie would much rather live here, and any of the Aussie politicians over here any day of the week

                  Thank God for our public heath, education systems, and decent response to the pandemic, and thank God we don't live in the mess of the absolute shit-show that is the USA !

  • +5

    Mr Trump - the next in the Mr Men series

  • +5

    Arguably a better read than "the art of the deal"

    • +7

      That wasn't even written by Trump who had absolutely no part in authoring of the book. Lol..

  • -2

    Barrack Hussein Obama

    • +14

      Why does that matter?

      • +8

        It doesn't… the right look for any reason to hate on him.. even his name.

      • That matters obviously a lot more to Obama as he always tried to hide the name, Hussein.

        • Probably because his mother raised him. He used father's name during the inauguration when the whole world was watching, did you miss that?

  • -8

    Nope. Cheaper elsewhere

    • +5

      I've seen the ebook cheaper but not hard cover. Where is the hard cover cheaper?

    • +1

      Proof?

    • +17

      Ok Karen

      • +8

        No, I'm Karen

        • +3

          Ok Karen

      • -2

        some people think upvotes mean they’re right

    • +6

      Supports abortion. Yes please!

      • Here’s a picture of a day old baby for you

        Let me know your reasons why it’s different

        https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-newborn-baby-one-day-old-3…

        • @grasstown
          gross

          • @Radar: Wondering if you speak for all those who support abortion ? I guess if you think a newborn life is gross then im starting to understand.

            • @grasstown: simple I think babies look gross. *Yes I was once a baby - probably a very gross one.

              I support a woman's right to make, communicate and act on decisions relating to their own body without suffering the incessant overt prejudice of others.
              Why would I have any other say in the matter outside of defending that right?

              • @Radar: Do you deny the humanity of the unborn child?

                • @grasstown: While an unborn child is technically human life, it's totally dependant on the host and their ability to support it (pre and post natal), and the life/health decisions the host makes.
                  That view/decision is different for everyone and probably comes down to something like - at what point during the development does "life" begin for that human (sentience, thinking, willing, etc), and/or religious beliefs.
                  My views of human development are compatible with abortion and don't matter (I will have that decision).

                  • @Radar: I will never have that decision.

                  • @Radar: This! Reflect on what you’ve said

                    You are trying to justify something you can’t justify

                    • @grasstown: Of course it's justifiable. I just did. If you want me to spell it out - I'm perfectly fine with the termination of that undeveloped human.

                      People all around the world justify abortion all the time (and they are not wrong in that justification) - it's not irrational.
                      Other people all around the world justify the negative all the time (like you for example) - you are not wrong with your decision either (for your own body).

                      What is strange is you thinking you have a right to make a decision about another person's body.

                      • @Radar: “ What is strange is you thinking you have a right to make a decision about another person's body.”

                        “Technically human life”

                        “Undeveloped human”

                        “ totally dependant on the host and their ability to support it”

                        You can’t bring yourself to admit that you agree with taking a human life. You need to justify it to yourself.

                        Also, They have a body.

                        You haven’t reflected yet. Abortions have always been done, but it’s well known that the baby dies. The baby feels pain. We now have ultrasounds and technology showing just how incredibly formed they are from so early on - previous civilisations never knew and yet we compare ourselves to those civilisations

                        The law used to be that abortions were unlawful, but that the law chiseled out in case law situations when society accepted they were lawful.

                        • @grasstown: Nice language hurdling - you must realise by now it's semantics and this discussion is becoming pointless.
                          “Technically human life” means technically a human and alive. Not developed to the point of "life" (sentience, thinking, willing, etc) hence “Undeveloped human”.
                          “ totally dependant on the host and their ability to support it” - ie. mother's want's, needs, physical, mental health and feasibility to continue that support that undeveloped human requires to continue to survive until and beyond birth.
                          Combine these two concepts and you have the nuts of my beliefs - the developing human doesn't inherently have a right to it's life until a certain point of it's development. No reflection needed.

                          I am a part of society that accepts abortion as not only lawful but the choice as beneficial.
                          You can call it taking human life all you want (it technically is) - the point where that human "should" get a right to life is largely philosophical.

                          If you are that opposed to the idea then put your money where your mouth is and help support some children who don't get the support they need because their parents didn't have the option to abort before it was too late. Help those kids have some quality of life.

                          I'm going to ignore the rest of this thread and go back to bargains.

                          • @Radar: Surely you can see your belief is flawed

                            You’re now defining life as birth? Why not heartbeat?

                            Modern medicine can save those otherwise totally dependant on the mother. The baby is not dead until the mother or other decides to kill it.

                            Does your society also complain about why God doesn’t cure diseases and illnesses? There are many discoveries we have today that we would not have if the person who discovered it had been aborted. Many discoveries were made by persons who died of an illness we can now detect at birth, had those persons been aborted we would not have those discoveries.

                            Why should it be up to me? I am yet to meet or see someone say they wish they were aborted at birth.

  • +57

    its really sad how quickly people have forgotten the Snowden Files, Manning files, the greatest surveillance state in history, illegal NSA monioring of all internet data, Drone killings that were 90% civilians and the croneyism and corruption throughout the DNC that to a large degree brought us Trump. The guy was a monster and a bigger monster coming after doesnt make Obama less of a monster.
    A classy well spoken monster is still a monster

    • +18

      trump was a kitten compared to all that shit

      • +30

        Trump didnt fix any of those problems and caused lot more.

        • +8

          I mean he only increased the US economy and provided tons of jobs but yeah useless president. Obama did way more with his drone strikes

          • +8

            @RetroMetro: True the economy was going well before Covid, but Trump also substantially increased the deficit and debt pre covid. Which unless you’re growing faster than the debt is not sustainable in the long run. Presumably now Biden has been elected the Republicans will start caring about debt and deficits again.

          • +6

            @RetroMetro: Unfortunately that's from Trump inheriting a good economy. Growth actually slowed under him compared to Obama.

          • @RetroMetro: Did you forget that Obama had to deal with the global financial crisis caused by Republicans?

      • +9

        Trump increased drone strike

    • +7

      So true. Then Trump comes along and the same stuff still happens. Almost as if there is a group of people that make sure it all happens regardless of who is president.

      • That’s right. It’s called the swamp. They run America.

      • -1

        Trump took President seat but the Houses were still controlled by the Dem. It's that simple

        • +2

          Initially the house was controlled by the Republicans, and certainly the senate was controlled by the Republicans the whole time

    • +1

      Going against the US military complex is not easy and I think Barack might have preferred to play it safe, not to rock the boat too much as the first Black President.

      • +9

        He's not playing it safe, he's playing it as his donors told him to.

      • +1

        You think? At the end of the day, he completely played by their terms. He done evil. He's evil. That's an extremely lame sugar coating attempt.

    • +12

      250k dead and rising …….

      • +1

        Deaths over population in US is not much different than in Spain, Italy, UK, France, Mexico, Brazil etc. but no one cares to tell. Not to mention more than 90% of deaths in US are caused by a base disease that them alone kill the most US people. 2 years from now people will look at these numbers very differently.

        • +3

          they are all fake so no-one's gonna bother

        • +11

          It's always interesting when people try to explain away the deaths of a quarter of a million people as if it's nothing.

          • -3

            @firecaller: @firecaller: Please read the whole thing people say instead of taking away only what you are interested. You need to accept the truth there are millions of US people dying every year due to other causes, and this year a minority of them happen to have Coronavirus tested positive when they died. People know there are false positive for the testing too, so numbers are greatly inflated.

        • +1

          Well the true deaths is much higher than 250k and rising, the other countries you mentioned are also doing poorly, so it's not going to make things better comparing to them.

          The fact is, he is a shit president for downplaying the virus and not encouraging masks.

          • @TEER3X: most of australia's governments still dont encourage masks. our leader went to a huge mass and a big footy game after the virus arrived. theyre all shit

            • +1

              @belongsinforums: They have encouraged masks when necessary. If a state has had little to no cases there’s little to be gained.

              Trump on the other hand with cases rampant across the US is telling people to not wear masks, that it will just magically disappear, falsely claim they’re giving free treatment, telling people to stop getting tested, promoting Hydroxychloroquine without evidence - even taking it, suggesting bleach and sunlight inside the body would help, organising mass gatherings without protection, polarising the public, undermining trust in the CDC.

              Trump deserves the strongest condemnation for the worst response of any major politician in the world. Yes Europe is almost as bad, but it’s far denser than the US, less wealthy per capita, weaker boarders, and has more fragmented governance. And the US is still worse!

              Politicians are not equally shit.

              • @[Deactivated]: now ur putting words in my mouth. i said theyre all shit

                • @belongsinforums: Oh I'm not claiming you have any position contry to what I said. You can say they're all shit. I'm just making the follow on point that they're not shit to the same degree - Trump is worse.

      • +1

        Meanwhile China has less than 5,000 deaths over a population of nearly 1.5B 👍

    • +8

      And his a democratic, apparently one of the "good guys" 😂
      I bet not one of those points you mention is raised in his book, but there will be 4 chapters on obamacare…

    • +3

      Couldn't have put it better.

    • +9

      "A classy well spoken monster is still a monster"

      Well said.

      Biden will do just as bad as trump, but no one will care because he says emotional nice things on camera.

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