“Barack Obama’s election was a triumph of hope. But his presidency was a triumph of persistence.”

I think most people with even a casual knowledge of Obama are familiar with speech writer and Twitter gem Jon Favreau but he was not alone in shaping the words our Commander in Chief delivered in the early years of his presidency. Favreau had a group of people working with him at the White House including David Litt, who stayed on after Favreau left.

Yale grad Litt parlayed a college student passion for a candidate into a career in the White House. His memoir is a collection of stories about the trials and tribulations that Obama and his staff endured throughout his eight year tenure as our last legitimate president. There is some inside scoop but for the most part Litt didn’t have a close personal relationship with the President although they had a cordial working relationship. Inadvertently the most interesting inside scoop Litt dropped didn’t involve Obama directly but involved Harvey Weinstein’s dick swinging behavior leading up to the Democratic National Convention.

Naturally, a speechwriter by trade, Litt is a talented & engaging author. Most importantly he has a good sense of humor; he made a few mistakes when he first made it to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave but he allows the reader to laugh at his past pain.

I sang the Golden Girls theme song in the Oval. I watched a tiny man surf Jesse Jackson’s coat. In a convention hall in Charlotte, I met a mom from Arizona who would never stop fighting for her little girl. … I found a salmon in the toilet and was caught half naked on Air Force One and told the president he looked like Hitler to his face.

Litt writes a lot about the struggle to get Obamacare passed and acknowledges the useless healthcare.gov website. He also played a part in getting President Obama on Between Two Ferns which nearly “broke the Internet.” He touches on the 2016 election and the Trump campaign but doesn’t devote a lot of time to the Cheeto in Chief. This isn’t a book about Politics but Litt is a die hard Democrat who parrots Obama’s beliefs and supported his White House agenda so read at your own risk if you lean in a different direction.

Whenever I read these books written by people in the political sphere I get nostalgic for our recent past and angry about our present but excited for our future. I am so ready for Midterms y’all.