The Long Alliance

July 25, 2022
New York magazine correspondent Debenedetti debuts with an engrossing study of the political and personal relationship between Joe Biden and Barack Obama. The narrative starts in 2004, when Obama delivered the keynote address at the Democratic national convention. After the speech, which catapulted the U.S. Senate candidate from Illinois to national celebrity, Biden told one of Obama’s advisers to “make sure... he’s a workhorse, and not a show horse.” From there, Debenedetti meticulously tracks the pair’s evolving relationship, noting that Obama initially found Biden to be condescending and dismissive, but changed his mind when he got to know the Delaware senator during the 2008 presidential primary. Biden was at first reluctant to be vetted for vice president, but his family pushed him to reconsider. From the beginning of their time in the White House, Biden sought to assert his influence while projecting loyalty, staying behind after meetings to confer with Obama and helping to secure legislative victories such as the 2009 Recovery Act. Debenedetti also details personality clashes and policy disagreements, including over the size of the troop surge Afghanistan in 2009, and describes Obama’s careful deliberations over how involved he should be in the 2020 Democratic primaries. Doggedly reported and clear-eyed about its subjects’ strengths and weaknesses, this is an illuminating portrait of a consequential political partnership.