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| Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History | 
 enlarge | Author: Ted Sorensen
Publisher: Harper
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
Buy New: $12.99
You Save: $14.96 (54%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  34 reviews
Sales Rank: 4433
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 576
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6.2 x 1.8
ISBN: 0060798718
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.922092
EAN: 9780060798710
ASIN: 0060798718
Publication Date: May 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Ted Sorensen's 2008 Convention Speech September 5, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Ted Sorensen's 2008 Convention Speech
Tuesday, August 26, 2008 at 03:20 PM
"In my more than 50 years of national conventions, this is one of the most important. Our 8 year national nightmare of mendacity, mediocrity and economic misery--with millions of Americans losing their jobs, their savings, their homes and their hopes--will soon end with the election of Barack Obama.
I have long dreamed that our party would produce another president matching John F. Kennedy's intellect and integrity, his capacity to inspire justice at home and peace around the world--and this week my dream is coming true. Once in a lifetime, said the poet, hope and history meet in one extraordinary man and movement--I thank the good Lord that I've lived long enough to meet and help such men twice in my lifetime, John Kennedy and Barack Obama.
Kennedy at 43 proved that age matters in the White House. His energy, appeal to other young world leaders, calm under pressure and openness to new thinking, well served our nation. Denounced as a candidate for lacking executive experience, he displayed sound judgment in leading a successful nationwide campaign, choosing a top-notch team, negotiating with difficult leaders, and out-organizing and out-th inking his adversaries--just as he would as president, particularly when, with prudence and courage, he induced the Soviets to withdraw their nuclear missiles from Cuba without the U.S. firing a shot; and the world gave thanks that the more experienced Richard Nixon had lost that close election.
In 1960, Kennedy, like Obama today, facing a Republican tied to a failed past, looked to a future of new ideas and opportunities. As president, he did not send the Marine Corps to preserve America's oil supplies, he sent the Peace Corps to preserve America's global standing. Confronting a Soviet military advantage in space, he made all Americans proud by literally reaching for the moon.
Today, we need new leadership. We have lost our way, lost the respect of our allies, lost the confidence of our investors and consumers. Are we to be the first generation of Americans to leave to our children a country in worse condition than we received it?
In short: this year, my friends, the fates will try us; erase all trace of fear and bias; we have the man we need at last to embrace the future, not the past, and to dispel eight years of pain and shame. Barack Obama is his name! Call the roll!"
The Keeper of the Kennedy Flame November 26, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Ted Sorensen, who was as much a Kennedy alter ego as he was a speechwriter, is the keeper of the Kennedy flame. In that capacity he wrote Kennedy's biography in 1965. But that book was wooden and lacking in perspective. This book is written after Sorensen has lived a full lifetime and enjoys the perspective of history. He's somewhat more capable of being critical of Kennedy than he was in 1965, but he's still a Kennedy booster. And this time around, he is armed with the vindication brought by 40 years of history. Best of all, Sorensen is capable, at this stage of his life, in being extraordinarily candid. The result is quite moving.
Sorensen's own life history -- his idealistic politician father, his mentally ill mother, and his large extended family -- is quite interesting in its own right. And he tells the tale with great grace.
Sorensen's relationship with Kennedy, and absolute devotion to the man, is told with great insight and passion. Sorensen's best service to history is to demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt that Kennedy was a man of great substance and idealism. This is not some empty suit, some diletante repeating lines fed to him by advisors hired by his rich daddy. This criticism of Kennedy has resonated over the years given the plethora of shallow Kennedy want-to-bes and given all the disclosures about Kennedy's poor health and border-line addictive sex life. Apart from appealing to our prurient interests, such criticisms appeal to our baser instincts that delight in dragging down the good and the mighty.
Sorensen portrays Kennedy's intelligence, wit, and judgment. Most importantly, Kennedy was a leader with the ability to inspire and to get the most out of people. This included Sorensen himself, who under Kennedy's spell wrote some of the best speeches of the century and who helped to run a successful presidential campaign and administration. Without Kennedy, Sorensen is lost, at least in his abortive attempts at a post-Kennedy political career. He's a highly intelligent, successful lawyer without Kennedy, but with Kennedy he's able to scale far greater heights.
But there is also something quite tragic about Sorensen's absolute devotion to Kennedy, which, he acknowledges, cost him his family. Sorensen's grief over Kennedy's death is conveyed in very moving terms.
On the matter of Kennedy' speeches and publications, Sorensen takes the position that Kennedy is the author in the truest sense of the word, though Sorensen (much like a highly effective judical law clerk) is writing much of the text. Sorensen stresses his partnership with Kennedy, how he was in tune with Kennedy on policy matters, and how he would borrow from Kennedy's previous speeches or conversations to write first drafts that were then edited heavily by Kennedy. What matters for me is not so much that Kennedy, like Lincoln, had to write every word of his speech, but that Kennedy was highly engaged in policy formulation, policy expression, and speech writing. It's unrealistic in the modern age to expect a President to have the time to write every word of every speech. Kennedy used his time well so that he could perform all of the functions of his office and had the indispensable abiity to inspire and to delegate to others.
Sorensen delivers a withering evaluation of George W. Bush and the wrong turn the country took in the Reagan era. Kennedy stood for the importance of the public sector, for shared sacrifice, and for creation of an economically just society. The worship of the private sector, the view of government as a problem not a solution, and the pursuit of social wedge issues have made Kennedy obsolete for many years. History has seemed to vindicate Kennedy as we view the wreckage of the American economy and foreign policy in 2008 -- and as we see the emergence of a new President who Sorensen views as Kennedy's rightful heir.
Whatever your politics, Sorensen has written a moving and insightful autobiography that makes the best case for Kennedy that can be made.
VALUABLE June 8, 2008
Sorensen has made a valuable contribution to understanding JFK's presidency. His prose of course are outstanding, a rare experience in this type of literature.
His ability to explain complicated issues in terse but eloquent terms adds reams to understanding the president's positions on so many things: Cuba, Berlin, Civil Rights and Vietnam to name a few of many.
I hope he continues with more efforts on this subject.
Robert Dorff
Palm Springs, CA.
A great read June 10, 2008
This is a great book. Informative and personal, from a man who has seen so much and done so much. A must read for anyone who has a passion for politics or 20th Century American History.
Up Close And Historical! June 19, 2008
John Kennedy was a great man and would have been a transformer of Washington politics. That's why they killed him!!! Ted Sorenson tells the up close and personal story of why we no longer have Jack kennedy among us.
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