Obama & McCain

This summer I posted a couple of book reviews on Face Book, one by Obama and the other by McCain. Here they are.

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (Paperback) by Barack Obama

I confess I read this book because I wanted to prepare myself for a possible (probable?) Obama presidency. I had (have) no intentions of voting for him. That is a matter of political/social philosophy. [I am a compassionate conservative.]

I found the book a compelling but laborious read. It is the autobiography of a biracial child seeking to find and claim his identity. I found myself deeply touched by his struggles and impressed with his method of social engagement as well as his philosophical/theological understanding of self-identification (our identities flow from the stories of our families).

In terms of style, the author often gets lost in the details. Writing shortly after graduating from law school, the book often reads as if he is trying to prove his case by drowning the reader in minutia of various scenes from his life. It stretches his credibility to expect the reader believe he has an accurate memory of the details of relatively minor events that happened years in the past.

The general tone of the book is that of an amateur social psychologist attempting to interpret the world in which he has grown up. While I found his accounts of how he experienced life engaging and believable and I found his attempts to describe and interpret the motives of those close to him insightful, his broader social analysis lacked the credibility of a trained social psychologist.

In the end, I like the Barack Obama I found in these pages. He appears open, honest, highly intelligent, and seasoned in the quest for meaning. Yet, I kept hoping he would arrive at a place of solid self-identity. Instead, I came to the end of the book appreciating the journey he has taken while hoping he continues. As a pastor, I want to walk with him on that journey. Unfortunately, my impression is that he (at the time of this writing – and I assume at the present since the edition I read was recently revised) still does not have a solid grasp of who he is and where he belongs in our modern world. I wish him well; I am not comfortable with the idea of someone serving in the office of President of the United States because it is the next stop on a journey of self-discovery.

Worth the Fighting For: The Education of an American Maverick, and the Heroes Who Inspired Him (Paperback) by John McCain

I read this book out of a sense of responsibility; this fall I plan to vote for John McCain for the highest political office in the world. I should have a good idea of who he is or at least who he wants us to think he is. This volume (400 plus pages) was completed shortly after he lost the Republican nomination for President in 2000 and was first published in 2002. It was co-authored by Mark Salter.

Like most political tomes it is long and laborious, full of excruciating details of political triumphs and failures. The full title partially reflects the author’s intent of chronicling his political career, “Worth Fighting For: The Education of an American Maverick, and the Heroes Who Inspired Him.” The premise is to weave together the major events of McCain’s political career with brief character driven narratives of key figures (all are men, representing differing political views, with some fictional literary characters included) who have directly or indirectly influenced him. The portrait that unfolds is that of a man committed to the ideals of courage, honor, truthfulness, and loyalty. Above all McCain wants to be known as a patriot for the greatest nation to ever exist, a nation worth fighting for.

The sermon woven throughout the text culminates in chapter 10-B “A Happier Life in Every Way” where the life of his favored hero, Teddy Roosevelt, is reviewed. Roosevelt exemplifies McCain’s view of the great man, someone who, although flawed, overcomes weaknesses, aggressively confronts injustice, and steadfastly promotes a noble cause for humanity. Above all Roosevelt believes in the manifest moral destiny of the USA to lead the world into true democracy. Thus, McCain’s ideal man is someone who fights for what he believes in, and McCain, like Teddy, believes in the United States of America and the ideals upon which the nation was formed. Unfortunately, he does not explicate those ideals from the vantage point of the founders of the nation; instead he only looks through the lens of his twentieth century heroes.

One of the interesting traits of the book is McCain’s incessant portrayal of his own character flaws and mistakes in judgment. He draws upon his heroes to identify his own personal and political failings and to the find the best route out of them. Thus the “hidden agenda” of the book appears to be that of a man who wants others to know him for who he truly is and who he wants to be. It is as if you can hear his subconscious pleading, “I am who I am, I am not yet a great man, but no one has ever tried harder than me to become one.” In the words of the noted developmental psychologist Erik Erickson, McCain appears to be a man striving to enter the final phase of his life with a strong sense of integrity rather than despair.

My greatest concern about this person who would be president is that he fails to recognize the need to integrate his fractured self into his vision of greatness. For instance, when chronicling his visit to the cell where he had been kept prisoner in the Hanoi Hilton he notes that he felt no emotion, “the past is past.” He obviously sees this stoicism as an honorable character trait. After all, one of his heroes is a (North) Vietnamese diplomat. As a pastor and spiritual counselor I would encourage the Senator to let go of the faulty goal of conquering and forgetting past suffering and rather to more fully integrate his past suffering into his personal identity. (How did years of torture form him rather than just inform him?) Perhaps, the greatest lessons we can learn from pain are not how to avoid it or use it, but rather what it says about who we are and how it has shaped us. This might prove beneficial in helping him conquer his flaws rather than merely temper and utilize them. But this process would require a greater dependence on God than McCain’s writings indicate he is willing; references to God or even religious faith are virtually absent from this book.

As the book closes McCain muses about the twilight of his political career, proposing he probably has had his last romp in the limelight of national politics. This makes the text, which I suspect began as an apology for the philosophical roadmap for the McCain presidency planned to begin in 2001 (e.g., campaign finance reform), read more like a never ending eulogy. Perhaps a revised edition of the book will include a new hero, a prototype of political resurrections.

And, Yes I still plan to vote for him!