<p>Who is the author of Yes We (Still) Can?</p>

<p>Dan Pfeiffer is the author of Yes We (Still) Can.</p>

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Yes We (Still) Can Book Summary - Yes We (Still) Can Book explained in key points

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Yes We (Still) Can summary

Name: Yes We (Still) Can
Rating: 4.1 (18 reviews)
Author: Dan Pfeiffer

Dan Pfeiffer

Politics in the Age of Obama, Twitter, and Trump

4.1 (18 ratings)

26 mins

Brief summary

'Yes We (Still) Can' is a political memoir by Dan Pfeiffer, former White House Communications Director under Obama administration. Pfeiffer shares insights from the campaign trail and the Obama presidency - highlighting the challenges of governing in the digital age and the impact of social media on American politics.

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Media Memoirs

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Yes We (Still) Can
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What’s in it for me? Take a peek into the life of a White House staffer in the Obama administration.

Many people are still wondering how the political landscape in the United States could change so much so quickly since Barack Obama’s presidency.

Few people may be as qualified to explain the shift as Dan Pfeiffer, a man who was a high-ranking member of Obama’s team from the day he announced his candidacy and who stayed on board for six years of his presidency. As communications director, Pfeiffer was in a unique position to view the changes in the media and press that contributed to Trump’s election.

Pfeiffer holds nothing back in his distaste for the Trump administration’s approach to policy and public relations, and his account of a life in politics is equally revealing and personal.

In these blinks, you’ll find out

how the Obama administration dealt with fake news;
how future Democrats should deal with Fox News; and
the five elements that contributed to Clinton’s loss in 2016.

Dan Pfeiffer had some early political experience but began his career at the very bottom.

In 1988, US voters had to choose between two presidential candidates – Republican George H. W. Bush and Democrat Michael Dukakis. At the time, Dan Pfeiffer was in the seventh grade and he volunteered to take the position of Dukakis in a mock debate. It would be Pfeffer’s first important lesson about politics.

Leading up to the debate, Pfeiffer spent hours in the library studying and reading up on the policies and agenda of the Dukakis campaign, which allowed him to face his opponent feeling confident and well prepared. But it didn’t matter – the girl playing Bush repeatedly called Dukakis weak on crime and said he wanted to raise taxes. With these two simple points, his opponent delivered a clear, compelling message that kept Pfeiffer from making any headway of his own. It was a lesson that would stay with him for a long time to come.

While Pfeiffer was good at memorizing facts, he wasn’t a stellar student. However, with the help of a strong application, he got into the prestigious Georgetown University, in Washington, DC. And since his grades were a little below their usual standards, he worked hard to prove himself.

At Georgetown, between his junior and senior year, Pfeiffer managed to get an internship in Vice President Al Gore’s office. He quickly made a name for himself by memorizing files and being able to pull up requested documents in a matter of seconds. This led to his being offered a job in the Justice Department – but Pfeiffer still had to finish up his senior year at Georgetown.

In the meantime, Al Gore was preparing his 2000 presidential campaign, and Pfeiffer was eager to get a spot on the team. After a tense waiting period, Gore’s press secretary, Chris Lehane, finally called to offer him a job on the press team. However, by the time Pfeiffer made his way to Gore’s Nashville headquarters, Lehane had been fired and there was no position waiting for him.

Nevertheless, Pfeiffer started at the bottom with other volunteers, making calls to voters alongside a senior citizen and a teenager. It was still exciting and fast-paced, and once again he quickly made a name for himself, this time by organizing a better calling system. This resulted in a job offer from the local media team.

Barack Obama was unlike any other politician, and there were five building blocks to his successful campaign.

After the Gore campaign, Pfeiffer worked a few small campaign jobs – and then he got his big break: being hired as the communications director for the South Dakota senator, Tim Johnson.

When Johnson made an improbable comeback and was reelected in 2002, some reporters called it the best-run campaign in the United States. This made Pfeiffer an in-demand operative, and soon he was working for the top Democratic senator, Tom Daschle. Eventually, Pfeiffer got a call from Obama’s staff.

Being a communications director is about delivering the president’s message and managing press relations.

Small fortunes can be spent coming up with the perfect political message. But these days, a good message, or even a good slogan, can’t be manufactured – it has to be authentic. Also, you need more than words. You need a compelling story.

Central to Obama’s success was the fact that his campaign was his message. Barack Obama himself represented the hope and change that was central to the message he wanted to deliver. In other words, Obama himself was the “Change We Can Believe In” that his slogan referred to. His life and his experience as a community organizer constituted the very fabric of his authentic and inspiring story. It got people to the polls and Obama into the White House.

Changes in the media landscape have helped nurture an environment of Trumpism.

Back during the Bill Clinton administration, the president implored his communications team to “win the news cycle.” So, if the day started out poorly with a negative news item, Clinton wanted his team to put a positive spin on it or get a good story out so that, when the evening news aired, they’d be “winning.”

These days, this approach no longer makes sense.

Fake news compounded the controversy surrounding Obama’s birth certificate.

As Pfeiffer sees it, while 2014 may have been the year that Trumpism started to emerge, Trump’s tactics of helping to spread fake news began years earlier.

Back during Obama’s first term, Trump encouraged the fake news being peddled by those who doubted that the president was born in the United States. It was a movement known as birtherism. Indeed, the Obama administration had to deal with fake news on a regular basis, so Pfeiffer has some tips to help future Trump challengers deal with his absurd tactics.

Fox News is a Republican propaganda outlet that needs to be handled with care.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), otherwise known as Obamacare, was another subject where Pfeiffer saw fake news run rampant. One day, Sarah Palin, a former candidate for vice president, posted a story on Facebook, claiming Obamacare was going to allow for bureaucratic “death panels” to form, which would decide which patients would be cared for based on their “level of productivity in society.”

Needless to say, this story was pure nonsense – and, since they’d been involved in shaping the bill, high-ranking Republicans knew it. But it didn’t matter. Jumping on the fake story gained them political points because it made things difficult for the Obama administration.

Twitter has been a transformative and powerful political tool.

If you still don’t think that Fox News is biased in favor of the Republicans, check the Fox News Twitter feed and then look at the feed of the Republican National Committee. They’re eerily similar.

For better or worse, Twitter has become a go-to forum for the daily political discussion. You may gripe that it’s ill-suited for nuanced political discussions, but there’s no denying its power in shaping the conversation.

Health issues and the desire for a normal relationship got Pfeiffer out of the White House and into podcasting.

Pfeiffer was in the hospital during that regrettable Twitter slip-up because his blood pressure was through the roof. Six years in the White House had left Pfeiffer with moments where the left side of his body would tingle and he’d lose the ability to move his leg.

He tried to work through it, but it was clear that every time he got into a heated discussion or a tense situation, he ran the risk of having another debilitating episode. Given the nature of his work, this was hard to avoid.

There were five important issues that contributed to the Democrats’ loss in 2016.

Like many others, Pfeiffer was pretty confident that Hillary Clinton would win. As Obama had said before the election, no other candidate in history had been as qualified for the job as Clinton.

Looking back on it now, however, it’s clear that there were five important issues that contributed to Clinton’s loss, though Pfeiffer missed them at the time.

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What is Yes We (Still) Can about?

Yes We (Still) Can (2018) offers a revealing look at the dizzyingly high-pressure life of a White House communications director. In addition to his personal experiences in the Obama administration, author Dan Pfeiffer is eager to share the knowledge he gained along the way, from how to deal with the press to how to handle political opposition.

Yes We (Still) Can Review

Yes We (Still) Can (2018) is a captivating book that offers insights into the Obama administration and the future of American politics. Here's why it's worth reading:

It provides a behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of the Obama White House, revealing the challenges and victories of his presidency.
Through personal anecdotes and reflections, it offers a unique perspective on the power of hope, resilience, and grassroots movements in shaping the political landscape.
The book discusses the current political climate with candidness and optimism, leaving readers feeling informed and inspired to engage in the democratic process.

Who should read Yes We (Still) Can?

Political junkies
Concerned Democrats
Students of political science and public relations

About the Author

Dan Pfeiffer graduated from Georgetown University and then spent years on a number of political campaigns for Democratic candidates before joining Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. After working as a communications director for the Obama administration, he went on to become the cohost of the popular podcast Pod Save America.

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