Grace President Obama and ten days in the battle for America

On June 17, 2015, in Charleston, South Carolina, nine Black people attending a weekday Bible study were murdered by a young white gunman who espoused racial hatred. The horrific massacre of these most peaceful members of the historic Emanuel Church shocked a nation and set in motion a struggle to determine how America's first Black president would respond to the devastating crime that once again centered the nation's long and unresolved history of racist violence. The ten days between the murders and memorial service brimmed with intense debate among White House senior staff. President Obama's chief speechwriter Cody Keenan coordinated the staff in order to ensure that the White House's response was truly appropriate to the national mood. The result was one of the most significant Presidential addresses of the century, with the President calling for justice, reconciliation, and hope, and leading the audience--and by extension the nation--in singing a hymn. Students of politics will gain an insider's perspective on presidential power and leadership in a time of crisis.

Keenan, former White House Director of Speechwriting under President Barack Obama, writes a compelling memoir of his tenure in the West Wing. A Chicago native and Northwestern graduate, he began his career in the mailroom of Sen. Ted Kennedy's office and worked his way up, eventually earning a master's degree in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government. After working on Obama's presidential campaign, he found a niche as part of a crackerjack speechwriting team, which included Ben Rhodes and Jon Favreau. One of his signature speeches included the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery marches. The crux of this narrative is the eulogy he crafted for slain Charleston pastor Clementa Pinckney in 2015, which dovetailed with speeches he had to prepare for either outcome of the Supreme Court decisions regarding Obamacare and same-sex marriage. His relationship with the president was collaborative, and Keenan outlines the many drafts that incorporated Obama's edits, which pushed the author to finesse the speeches and make them substantive and effective. Keenan demonstrates humility at the tasks given him and also offers a candid slice of life in a West Wing characterized by camaraderie, integrity, and hard work. VERDICT Highly recommended for all readers.--Barrie Olmstead

A pertinent chronicle of the making of a president's messages. Keenan, who served as Barack Obama's chief speechwriter, makes an absorbing book debut with an insider's view of the pressured, often "fucking terrifying" workings within the White House, where he and his staff routinely put in 12-hour days, holed up in the basement "Speechcave," crafting the president's public statements. While focusing on 10 days in June 2015, when he worked on several high-stakes speeches, Keenan recounts his entire career, beginning in 2002, when he became an intern for Sen. Ted Kennedy, through to his promotion to Obama's chief speechwriter in 2013. The author's first chance at speechwriting came with Kennedy, whom Keenan praises as a public servant "of the old breed who saw politics as a noble calling, an effort that kept differences of philosophy from becoming barriers to cooperation." When Obama entered the 2008 presidential race, Keenan's speeches for Kennedy earned him a place in the campaign--and on Obama's staff. In 2011, assigned to write Obama's eulogy for those killed in the shooting that wounded Gabby Giffords, Keenan admits, "I was terrified. It would be my first prime-time, nationally televised speech" and one that "needed to stand as a surprising, hopeful, and even joyous celebration of the way the people who died had lived their lives." The speeches that occupied him in June 2015 were equally significant: responses to the Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act, same-sex marriage, and the shooting at Charleston's Mother Emanuel Church that killed nine people, including the pastor, Clementa Pinckney. Keenan portrays Obama as a perfectionist with clear aims for tone and content. Multiple drafts, edits, and rewrites resulted in the soaring rhetoric for which the former president was noted. In his eulogy for Pinckney, "Grace was what Obama wanted to talk about…the quiet grace that sets a louder example than any shout of hatred." A moving portrait of a presidency and its top speechwriter. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.