Reviews
No book about the Obama presidency appears to have unnerved the White House quite so much as Confidence Men by Ron Suskind, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has developed a niche in the specialized art of parting the curtain on presidential dealings., A[n] authoritative window on the inner workings of the administration and a useful management primer on how not to run an organization. . . . "Confidence Men" is crammed with interesting detail., The book of the week, maybe the book of the month, is Ron Suskind's Confidence Men . . . . A detailed narrative of the Administration's response-sometimes frantic, sometimes sluggish, sometimes both-to the financial and economic catastrophe it inherited, as experienced from the inside., Savvy and informative. . . . The most ambitious treatment of this period yet. . . . Suskind's book often reads like Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest . But the quagmire isn't a neo-Vietnam like Afghanistan--it's the economy., A truly groundbreaking inside account. . . . Penetrating in its analysis of why the administration's approach to the country's economic ills has been so lackluster. . . . An important addition to the growing library of books about this president., The work that went into "Confidence Men" cannot be denied. Suskind conducted hundreds of interviews. He spoke to almost every member of the Obama administration, including the President. He quotes memos no one else has published. He gives you scenes that no one else has managed to capture., Suskind does a magnificent job explaining the way an economy centered on debt has decimated the middle class and made the top 1 percent of Americans impossibly wealthy. . . . Suskind describes a leader pulled off course by his staff., Suskind's account of the Obama administration is a marker of our times. It reveals a President unable to perform responsibly the duties of his high office. . . . Suskind's contribution to this tale of woe is to give us a fine grained picture of Obama's passive place in deliberations., This narrative. . . keeps you reading long after you've absorbed the White House's petty criticisms about the book. The portrait of Obama that emerges here is sympathetic, even though Suskind addresses the president's failings. . . . Though the book toggles between Washington and Wall Street, the freshest material comes from Suskind's deep access to the West Wing., Written in sharp, cinematic scenes, in which the main players in the administration are captured in full-blooded, uncensored conversation, "Confidence Men" sprawls across the multiple crises of the opening two years of the Obama presidency. . . . Suskind's central thesis deserves to be taken seriously., Savvy and informative. . . . The most ambitious treatment of this period yet. . . . Suskind's book often reads like Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest . But the quagmire isn't a neo-Vietnam like Afghanistan—it's the economy., Suskind's account of the Obama administration is a marker of our times. It reveals a President unable to perform responsibly the duties of his high office. . . . Suskind's contribution to this tale of woe is to give us a fine grained picture of Obama's passive place in deliberations., Savvy and informative. . . . The most ambitious treatment of this period yet. . . . Suskind's book often reads like Halberstam's "The Best and the Brightest".But the quagmire isn't a neo-Vietnam like Afghanistan - it's the economy., The book of the week, maybe the book of the month, is Ron Suskind's "Confidence Men". . . . A detailed narrative of the Administrations response-sometimes frantic, sometimes sluggish, sometimes both-to the financial and economic catastrophe it inherited, as experienced from the inside., The White House says Suskind talked to too many disgruntled former staffers. But he seems to have talked to a lot of gruntled ones, too. The overarching portrait of chaos, lack of intellectual depth and absence of political wisdom, from a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, rings true., Suskind is not calling Obama a confidence man here. Rather, he presents a president who is not up to the task of outmaneuvering a political and economic system that is packed full of confidence men., Ron Suskind's book is . . . the one that makes the most sense. . . . The shudder-inducing bits of "Confidence Men" come when the team is too optimistic about how its policies will play out. The confidence allows them to move on too quickly., The work that went into Confidence Men cannot be denied. Suskind conducted hundreds of interviews. He spoke to almost every member of the Obama administration, including the President. He quotes memos no one else has published. He gives you scenes that no one else has managed to capture., This portrait of the president's management of the economic crisis is an extraordinary story of ineptness, callowness and pitiful inexperience in office. . . . Indeed, the book represents some sort of watershed, a formal measurement of the distance between the perception of a vaunted political figure and the reality., A searing new book. . . . Suskind has a flair for taking material he's harvested to create narratives with a novelistic sense of drama., This inside account of the Obama economic team contains enough damning on-the-record quotes to give it the ring of truth despite White House efforts to discredit the narrative of infighting and missed opportunities. Read it and weep. It reminds me of the post-Iraq invasion books that documented a similar failure to rise to the enormity of the problem, whether the insurgency was in Iraq or on Wall Street., A searing new book. . . . Suskind has a flair for taking material he's harvested to create narratives with a novelistic sense of drama., This is wonkish stuff, but the you-are-there, personality-driven nature of Suskind's writing is compelling., No book about the Obama presidency appears to have unnerved the White House quite so much as "Confidence Men" by Ron Suskind, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has developed a niche in the specialized art of parting the curtain on presidential dealings., My Book of the Year. A narrative tour de force. . . . Journalism like this is all too rare in an ange in which reporters trade their critical faculties for access. And it's even rarer that skeptical reporting is turned into something lasting., A truly groundbreaking inside account. . . . Penetrating in its analysis of why the administration's approach to the country's economic ills has been so lackluster. . . . An important addition to the growing library of books about this president., The book paints a harsh, stark portrait of a president in over his head. . . . Suskind makes a compelling case that Obama was able to win the election because he was talking to the right people., ;A truly groundbreaking inside account. . . . Penetrating in its analysis of why the administration's approach to the country's economic ills has been so lackluster. . . . An important addition to the growing library of books about this president., Suskind's account of the Obama administration is a marker of our times. It reveals a President unable to perform responsibly the duties of his high office. . . . Suskind';s contribution to this tale of woe is to give us a fine grained picture of Obama's passive place in deliberations., Savvy and informative. . . . The most ambitious treatment of this period yet. . . . Suskind's book often reads like Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest . But the quagmire isn't a neo-Vietnam like Afghanistan--it's the economy., My Book of the Year. A narrative tour de force. . . . Journalism like this is all too rare in an ange in which reporters trade their critical faculties for access. And it's even rarer that skeptical reporting is turned into something lasting., The book of the week, maybe the book of the month, is Ron Suskind's Confidence Men . . . . A detailed narrative of the Administration's response-sometimes frantic, sometimes sluggish, sometimes both-to the financial and economic catastrophe it inherited, as experienced from the inside., "Savvy and informative. . . . The most ambitious treatment of this period yet. . . . Suskind's book often reads like Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest . But the quagmire isn't a neo-Vietnam like Afghanistan--it's the economy." -- Frank Rich, New York "A searing new book. . . . Suskind has a flair for taking material he's harvested to create narratives with a novelistic sense of drama." -- Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times "No book about the Obama presidency appears to have unnerved the White House quite so much as Confidence Men by Ron Suskind, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has developed a niche in the specialized art of parting the curtain on presidential dealings." -- The Chicago Tribune "A truly groundbreaking inside account. . . . Penetrating in its analysis of why the administration's approach to the country's economic ills has been so lackluster. . . . An important addition to the growing library of books about this president." -- Joe Nocera, The New York Times Book Review "The book of the week, maybe the book of the month, is Ron Suskind's Confidence Men . . . . A detailed narrative of the Administration's response-sometimes frantic, sometimes sluggish, sometimes both-to the financial and economic catastrophe it inherited, as experienced from the inside." -- Hendrik Hertzberg, The New Yorker "The work that went into Confidence Men cannot be denied. Suskind conducted hundreds of interviews. He spoke to almost every member of the Obama administration, including the President. He quotes memos no one else has published. He gives you scenes that no one else has managed to capture." -- Ezra Klein, The New York Review of Books "Suskind's account of the Obama administration is a marker of our times. It reveals a President unable to perform responsibly the duties of his high office. . . . Suskind's contribution to this tale of woe is to give us a fine grained picture of Obama's passive place in deliberations." -- Huffington Post The Huffington Post "My Book of the Year. A narrative tour de force. . . . Journalism like this is all too rare in an ange in which reporters trade their critical faculties for access. And it's even rarer that skeptical reporting is turned into something lasting." -- David Granger, Esquire "This inside account of the Obama economic team contains enough damning on-the-record quotes to give it the ring of truth despite White House efforts to discredit the narrative of infighting and missed opportunities. Read it and weep. It reminds me of the post-Iraq invasion books that documented a similar failure to rise to the enormity of the problem, whether the insurgency was in Iraq or on Wall Street." -- Eleanor Clift, Newsweek
