by Ben Rhodes
My office in the West Wing from 2011 to 2016. The space wasn’t great, but the real estate was good.
On the morning Donald Trump was inaugurated, White House staff cleaned out the Oval Office. On my final walk-through, I spotted Obama’s couch and rug (embroidered with Martin Luther King’s “arc of the moral universe” quote) sitting on the walkway outside the Oval Office.
The view from the plane: the Obamas preparing to take their final flight on Air Force One after Trump’s inauguration, bound for a vacation in Palm Springs. When I asked Obama what he intended to do the next morning, now that he was no longer president, he said, “Sleep in.”
For my parents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I couldn’t have written this book, or made it through the story it tells, without kind, patient, and generous support from many people. My Obama family picked me up when I was down, came of age with me, always stuck together, and continues to give me hope for the future. The incredible team of people who worked for me are responsible for whatever good I did at work—you inspired me with your passion, professionalism, and made coming to work fun…most days. The talented career professionals in the United States government are a national treasure. The many people I met, negotiated with, or collaborated with around the world extended my own horizons. Barack Obama made this entire story possible, taught me more than I could ever put into words, and continues to give me faith in the world as it ought to be.
A number of people were indispensable to making this book a reality. Rumana Ahmed did invaluable research with her characteristic good humor and idealism. Kristen Bartoloni and Alex Platkin kept my facts straight. Bernadette Meehan, Charlie Fromstein, Peter Rundlet, and Nimi Uberoi picked up my slack and were patient through my absences. Elyse Cheney was an invaluable guide, editor, and sounding board. Andy Ward made everything I wrote better, as did all of my other readers.
My wife, Ann, traveled this entire journey with me while also doing her own extraordinary and impactful work on behalf of women and girls around the world and becoming an incredible mom. And our girls, Ella and Chloe, who matter more to me than anything else in the world, always fill me with love and hope.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
From 2009 to 2017, BEN RHODES served as deputy national security advisor to President Obama, overseeing the administration’s national security communications, speechwriting, public diplomacy, and global engagement programming. Prior to joining the Obama administration, from 2007 to 2008 Rhodes was a senior speechwriter and foreign policy advisor to the Obama campaign. Before joining then–Senator Obama’s campaign, he worked for former congressman Lee Hamilton from 2002 to 2007. He was the coauthor, with Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, of Without Precedent: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission. A native New Yorker, Rhodes has a BA from Rice University and an MFA from New York University.
Twitter: @brhodes
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