David d friedman biography of barack obama

December 2, at pm. Peter Baker had established himself as an excellent writer of political history. He puts situations in prospective and fleshes out the politics and motives. The acknowledgments section clearly states that this coffee-table, overly illustrated, oversized tome 5 lbs by weight was the creation of the New York Times as a show piece, and not the serious Obama biography that Baker might want to write.

Diana Batzel said:. December 20, at pm. I just wanted to thank you for sharing your knowledge and book ratings with the greater general public. I belong to a small group of readers that are also making our way through the presidential list. Your site has become an indispensable resource for us and is always our first reference. We have great discussions on many different topics but invariably come back to the discussion of what makes a great leader or president.

David d friedman biography of barack obama

Do you have thoughts and time to share a few of your ideas on this topic? I am also wondering if you might be able to recommend a few good books that compare presidents and their leadership traits? I think it goes beyond being palatable to the electorate. We see this sort of change again and again. Barack begins thinking about and talking about the possibility of becoming president even in , , before he starts law school.

With most acquaintances, he would talk about becoming mayor of Chicago, and people would tease him about becoming governor or becoming a US senator. The conversation that he has with Bob Ilia, the motel owner in Northwestern Pennsylvania in the summer if , is vital. Right after that conversation, Barack had described it all in a letter to his girlfriend, Genevieve, who had stayed in New York and had declined to go to Chicago with him.

I knew — thanks to that contemporaneous letter to Genevieve — the name and location of the motel. Thanks to my great librarian here [at the University of Pittsburg Law School], Mark Silverman, who checked Pennsylvania state property records to identify who owned the motel in , I was able to look for present day phone listings for a Robert Ilia.

I left two voicemail messages, and, a day or so later, Bob called me, and we discussed that moment. Harold Washington died very suddenly of a heart attack in late , just at the time when Barack is making the decision to apply to law schools and leave Chicago. I believe that the story of his father is, for Barack, a lesson — a very deep profound lesson — about how not to waste your gifts because of personal indiscipline.

That vanishes in toto. I think Rob Fischer is a very important intellectual, analytical friend, and companion for Barack. John McKnight — still alive and a professor at Northwestern — was a social policy, intellectual figure within the community-organizing world. His emphasis on the strength of communities and the assets and strengths of poor people rather than their weaknesses had a very deep impact on Barack, more so than the other Saul Alinsky-styled community-organizing people who had a much more cynical view.

Jeremiah is someone Barack starts talking to, starts going out of his way to talk to repeatedly in , People in black Chicago — who I have tremendous respect for, who are very savvy observers — really do believe that Jeremiah, to a significant degree, was a substitute father figure in a way for Barack. This was also one of your bigger findings.

What did this unpublished book manuscript unlock about Obama? Who wrote it? The first half of it, which is about the economics of plant closings — which is really what was happening in Chicago when Barack got there and even before Barack got there — is in part a reflection on the lessons he learned in Chicago before he got to Harvard.

Then, the second half of it, which I think is largely if not entirely drafted by Barack rather than Rob, is about the politics and policy of race. To what extent did Obama recreate himself, from his youth to his presidency? But with Dreams from My Father — especially in its self portrayal of himself as a high school student at the Punahou school in Hawaii — he is without question burlesquing, if I can use that verb, his self portrayal and making himself out to have been a dramatically more unhappy, alienated young man than anyone among his many classmates and teachers and school officials remembers him.

Having spoken with scores of people, without exception, the Barack Obama they remember from high school was a very happy, friendly, outgoing, social, relaxed young man. Has he been realistically characterized in the media? For example, when Barack was elected the president of the law review, there were roughly 70 people in the room that night.

Senate since Reconstruction. Sworn into office on January 3, , Obama partnered with Republican Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana on a bill that expanded efforts to destroy weapons of mass destruction in Eastern Europe and Russia. Then, with Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, he created a website to track all federal spending. In February , Obama made headlines when he announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.

He was locked in a tight battle with then-U. He campaigned on an ambitious agenda of financial reform, alternative energy, and reinventing education and health care—all while bringing down the national debt. Because these issues were intertwined with the economic well-being of the nation, he believed all would have to be undertaken simultaneously.

When he took office at age 47, Obama inherited a global economic recession, two ongoing foreign wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the lowest-ever international favorability rating for the United States. They are serious, and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America: They will be met. Obama coaxed Congress to expand health care insurance for children and provide legal protection for women seeking equal pay.

Housing and credit markets were put on life support, with a market-based plan to buy U. The government made loans to the auto industry, and new regulations were proposed for Wall Street. Obama cut taxes for working families, small businesses, and first-time home buyers. He reached out to improve relations with Europe, China, and Russia and to open dialogue with Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba.

He lobbied allies to support a global economic stimulus package. He committed an additional 21, troops to Afghanistan and set an August date for withdrawal of nearly all U. Obama was an early opponent of President George W. In more dramatic incidents, Obama ordered an attack on pirates off the coast of Somalia and prepared the nation for a swine flu outbreak.

He signed an executive order banning excessive interrogation techniques and ordered the closing of the military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba within a year—a deadline that ultimately would not be met. Obama signed his signature health care reform plan, the Affordable Care Act, into law in March The new law prohibited the denial of coverage based on preexisting conditions, allowed citizens under 26 years old to be insured under parental plans, provided for free health screenings for certain citizens, and expanded insurance coverage and access to medical care to millions of Americans.

In October , a dispute over the federal budget and Republican desires to defund or derail the Affordable Care Act caused a day shutdown of the federal government. The rollout of the reforms were initially bumpy. October saw the failed launch of HealthCare. Extra technical support was brought in to work on the troubled website, which was plagued with glitches for weeks.

The health care law was also blamed for some Americans losing their existing insurance policies, despite repeated assurances from Obama that such cancellations would not occur. The legislation has faced numerous challenges in court and wound up at the U. Supreme Court three times. In the summer of , the Supreme Court upheld part of the Act regarding health care tax subsidies.

Without these tax credits, buying medical insurance might have become too costly for millions of people. The latest Supreme Court decision about the Affordable Care Act began in when Congressional Republicans dropped the individual mandate tax penalty to zero. Texas and 17 other Republican states quickly sued to strike down the Affordable Care Act, mainly based on their opposition to its individual mandate.

A Texas federal judge ruled in favor of the suit, saying that because there was no longer a tax, the law was unconstitutional. The case was sent to an appeals court. A final ruling came in June when the U. Supreme Court voted , , to uphold the Affordable Care Act on the grounds that the objecting states were not required to pay anything under the mandate provision and thus had no standing to bring the challenge to court.

As of January , nearly On May 2, an elite team of U. There were no American casualties, and the team was able to collect invaluable intelligence about the workings of al-Qaeda. Armed Forces. He became the first president to voice support for same-sex marriage in May As he did in , during his campaign for a second presidential term, Obama focused on grassroots initiatives.

Representative Paul Ryan. On November 6, , Obama won a second term as president, capturing more than 60 percent of the Electoral College. Obama officially began his second term on January 21, , when U. Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath of office. In Hamowy, Ronald ed. Friedman, David —. The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism. ISBN LCCN OCLC Libertarian Papers.

Friedman" Archived at the Wayback Machine. Market Urbanism. Retrieved 4 October The Machinery of Freedom. Open Court. An Essay on the Modern State. Cambridge University Press. David Friedman". The Wealth Standard. July 11, Retrieved July 5, Homo Ludens. Fred Serval. Archived from the original on Retrieved 11 May External links [ edit ].

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