Thanks, Obama

Thanks, Obama: My Hopey, Changey White House Years by David Litt, 310 pages

In Thanks, Obama, speechwriter Litt gives readers an inside view of the Obama White House — or at least the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is where most of the executive branch works. During his years as a White House speechwriter (first for Valerie Jarrett and later for President Obama), Litt made a name for himself as the joke guy, the one who brought Keegan Michael Key's "Luther, Obama's anger interpreter" to the White House Correspondents' Dinner. And while those funny moments are certainly highlighted here and the book is definitely funny, it also offers up a clear view of the pressures of the job, the overall mood of the White House throughout the Obama administration, and a bit of the former POTUS behind the scenes. Above all, it's an uplifting book, one that, at least momentarily, brings back the "hopey, changey" attitude toward politics that propelled Obama's first election. I enjoyed it immensely.