Overview

"The most critical election in living memory, viewed in real time through the eyes of one of our most trusted political commentators. Celebrated political analyst for ""The New Yorker"" Hendrik Hertzberg watches the long presidential campaign of 2007 and 2008 as it unfolds to reveal the transformation of the Democratic Party, the meteoric rise of Barack Obama, and other seismic shifts in our national political consciousness. Hertbzerg wrote about the events that culminated in the victory of Barack Obama in two venues, one Olympian and one immediate: his ""Comments"" for ""The Talk of the Town"" and the informal blog he began keeping on the magazine's Web site fifteen months before the election. ""?OB?MANOS!"" is adapted from both and framed by a new introductory essay. ""?OB?MANOS!"" shares the context needed to truly understand the events of the general election-the first in more than a half century in which no incumbent president or vice president was on the ballot-by first examining Bush's second term and the primary campaign. Hertzberg follows the central political players and rising stars while also looking at the issues that emerged as critical during the debates, such as health care, the Iraq war, and our economic crisis. Through his documentation and analysis of the campaign's defining moments, we come to understand the current political landscape in a whole new way. Hertzberg's voice combines sharp observation, historical perspective, analytic power, and often funny polemic. He brings all these qualities to his chronicle of one of the most intense, exciting, and surprising campaigns in the nation's history, sharing how most Americans-including ""The New Yorker"" editors-came to identify a junior senator from Illinois as ""a leader temperamentally, intellectually, and emotionally attuned to the complexities of our troubled globe."" ""?OB?MANOS!"" heralds a new chapter in American politics."

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9781594202360

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Reviews

The New York Times Book Review - Jonathan Freedland<br> In book form, without the cooling effect of The New Yorker 's trademark typeface or the ironic detachment provided by an adjacent line drawing or two, Hertzberg's fury is naked to the eye. And yet he is no finger-jabber leftist, hectoring his reader in the manner of so many radicals in print. The writing is too good for that. Hertzberg has a novelist's control of metaphor and a comedian's gift for the one-liner...But it is not only Hertzberg's wit that prevents him from being a left wingnut. He may stake out radical positions...but he is, more often, a spokesman for those unsung soldiers in the progressive army: the brokers of the messy compromise. <br> A collection of astute articles penned as longtime New Yorker writer Hertzberg (Politics: Observations and Arguments, 1966-2004, 2004, etc.) watched Barack Obama's historic presidential campaign. It was the longest, most expensive and, arguably, the most important presidentia

The New York Times Book Review - Jonathan Freedland In book form, without the cooling effect of The New Yorker 's trademark typeface or the ironic detachment provided by an adjacent line drawing or two, Hertzberg's fury is naked to the eye. And yet he is no finger-jabber leftist, hectoring his reader in the manner of so many radicals in print. The writing is too good for that. Hertzberg has a novelist's control of metaphor and a comedian's gift for the one-liner...But it is not only Hertzberg's wit that prevents him from being a left wingnut. He may stake out radical positions...but he is, more often, a spokesman for those unsung soldiers in the progressive army: the brokers of the messy compromise. A collection of astute articles penned as longtime New Yorker writer Hertzberg (Politics: Observations and Arguments, 1966-2004, 2004, etc.) watched Barack Obama's historic presidential campaign. It was the longest, most expensive and, arguably, the most important presidentia

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