The Promise: President Obama - Rilegato

‘French First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy and her pixie-like consort made an unnamed government official wait while they enjoyed a canoodle, according to a new book by Newsweek’s editor Jonathan Alter. He says Carla confided as much to U.S First Lady Michelle Obama’
Daily Mail 12/5

‘Carla Bruni is not getting enough sex with her president husband. Nicolas Sarkozy, 55, is usually too busy to fulfil his 42-year-old wife’s “physical needs”. The claims are made in a new book by Newsweek editor Jonathan Alter, 52’
Daily Star 12/5

‘According to a new book by American journalist Jonathan Alter, the French First Lady and Mrs Obama discussed their sex lives at a meeting in the USA’
Sunday Daily Star 9/5

‘A fascinating account of Barack Obama’s temper – at odds with his public image of cool unflappability – emerged yesterday in a new book. That the President’s biggest outburst involved Afghanistan provided the clearest insight yet into the divisions inside his war Cabinet over the country. In The Promise: President Obama, Year One, the author Jonathan Alter describes a series of private explosions by Mr Obama, with his most enraged flare-up directed at General Stanley McChrystal, his ground commander in Afghanistan’
The Times 10/5

‘Ex supermodel Carla, 42, now a singer, made the steamy revelation to US First Lady Michelle Obama in a chat about their sex lives during a state visit, according to a new book about the Obama presidency’
Sunday Mirror 9/5

‘First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is said to have kept the Queen waiting while she had sex. Carla, 42, told Michelle Obama she was making love with hubby Nicolas, the French President, a new book claims’
The Sun 10/5

‘Randy French president Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni kept the Queen waiting while they had sex, an author claims. Stunning ex-model Carla, 42, is said to have made the steamy revelation to America’s first lady Michelle Obama during a girly chat. US journalist Jonathan Alter writes in a new book about Barrack Obama: “Bruni wanted to know if, like them, Michelle and the President had ever kept anyone waiting that way. Michelle laughed nervously and said no.” The book, The Promise, insists it was a head of state the frolicking Sarkozys kept waiting’
The People 9/5
‘Alter’s book is an incredible document, full of information that in less distinguished hands might be called gossip. We are party to Obama’s known view of his setbacks, and to the behind-the-scenes battle over healthcare reform – Obama pursued it, Alter shows, against the wishes of every single one of his advisers’
Four stars, Telegraph 29/5
'Gripping and revealing' Leeds Guide

Barack Obama's inauguration as president on January 20, 2009, inspired the world. But the great promise of 'Change We Can Believe In' was immediately tested by the threat of another Great Depression, a worsening war in Afghanistan, and an entrenched and deeply partisan system of business as usual in Washington. Despite all the coverage, the backstory of Obama's historic first year in office has until now remained a mystery.
In The Promise: President Obama, Year One, Jonathan Alter, one of the USA's most respected journalists and historians, uses his unique access to the White House to produce the first inside look at Obama's difficult debut.
What happened in 2009 inside the Oval Office? What worked and what failed? What is the president really like on the job and off-hours, using what his best friend called 'a Rubik's Cube in his brain'? These questions are answered here for the first time. We see how a surprisingly cunning Obama took effective charge in Washington several weeks before his election, made trillion-dollar decisions on the stimulus and budget before he was inaugurated, engineered colossally unpopular bailouts of the banking and auto sectors, and escalated a treacher­ous war not long after settling into office.
The Promise is a fast-paced and incisive narrative of a young risk-taking president carving his own path amid sky-high expectations and surging joblessness. Alter reveals that it was Obama alone - 'feeling lucky' - who insisted on pushing major health care reform over the objections of his vice president and top advisors, including his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, who admitted that 'I begged him not to do this.'
Alter takes the reader inside the room as Obama prevents a fistfight involving a congressman, coldly reprimands the military brass for insubordination, crashes the key meeting at the Copenhagen Climate Change conference, and bounces back after a disas­trous Massachusetts election to redeem a promise that had eluded presidents since FDR.
In Alter's telling, the real Obama is an authentic, demanding, unsentimental, and sometimes over­confident leader. He adapted to the presidency with ease and put more 'points on the board' than he is given credit for, but neglected to use his leverage over the banks and failed to connect well with an angry public. We see the famously calm president cursing leaks, playfully trash-talking his advisors, and joking about even the most taboo subjects, still intent on redeeming more of his promise as the problems mount.
This brilliant blend of journalism and history offers the freshest reporting and most acute perspec­tive on the biggest story of our time. It will shape impressions of the Obama presidency and of the man himself for years to come.
£16.99
Author photo)
Jonathan Alter, a Chicago native, is the author of the bestseller The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope. He is a national affairs columnist for Newsweek and an analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. Alter lives in Montclair, New Jersey, with his wife, Emily Lazar. They have three children, Charlotte, Tommy, and Molly.