Former President Barack Obama suggests his historic 2008 election prompted a racial backlash in pockets of the country, sentiments latched onto by President Trump, in the first of his two-part, post-White House memoir.
“It was as if my very presence in the White House had triggered a deep-seated panic, a sense that the natural order had been disrupted,” Obama writes in excerpts of the first, 768-page A Promised Land, according to CNN.
In the book, due to be released on Nov. 17, Obama shares childhood memories and discusses his sharp ascent in politics, his 2008 presidential campaign, and his first term’s accomplishments and disappointments.
But on the issue of race, he details how Americans were “spooked by a black man in the White House,” calling out 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin in particular for giving a voice to those concerns.
“Through Palin, it seemed as if the dark spirits that had long been lurking on the edges of the modern Republican Party — xenophobia, anti intellectualism, paranoid conspiracy theories, an antipathy toward Black and brown folks — were finding their way to center stage,” he writes.
Obama also reflects on his relationship with his two-term vice president, presumptive President-elect Joe Biden. During their time in office, Biden earned a reputation within the administration for his contrarian opinions and advice but was relied on as the White House’s de facto congressional liaison with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“One of the reasons I’d chosen Joe to act as an intermediary — in addition to his Senate experience and legislative acumen — was my awareness that in McConnell’s mind, negotiations with the vice president didn’t inflame the Republican base in quite the same way that any appearance of cooperation with (Black, Muslim socialist) Obama was bound to do,” he writes.
In a nod to Trump’s challenging last week’s election and blocking the transition process, Obama praised Bush’s “basic decency” as one of the reasons he facilitated a smooth transfer of power, despite Obama’s 2008 bid being a repudiation of the Bush years.
A Promised Land is Obama’s third memoir. Penguin Random House reportedly paid he and former first lady Michelle Obama a $65 million advance for their books.
