How much has our political culture changed in the last decade? When Obama won the 2008 South Carolina primary, he gave a speech to a crowd excitedly chanting "Race Doesn't Matter!"

2020 Obama shakes his head at their naiveté. But I doubt he felt that way at the time.

Obama on Palin is scathing. He was surprised to see her embraced by conservatives who'd "spent decades decrying affirmative action, the erosion of intellectual standards, and the debasement of Western culture at the hands of multiculturalists."

The most depressing part of Obama's book so far. He meets with his team about the economic crisis. Says if we're going to need to spend anyway, why not do some big infrastructure projects? They respond that's too hard and complicated, so let's just give people food stamps.

Obama realized that the entire WH residece staff, with "well-paying, secure jobs," was non-white. Attributes to previous presidents wanting to be "served by those they assumed were not their equals—and, therefore, could not judge them.” If they were all white, what would he say?

Obama on the Afghanistan surge. The military demanded more troops, and “among the principals, only Joe Biden voiced his misgivings." If Biden had his way, the American ground presence in Afghanistan might've ended a decade ago.

Obama on Sarkozy, who sounds like a ten year old. This is the guy he let push him into Libya.

Obama's impressions of Saudi Arabia. Depressed that he was greeted by all men, no women or children, and women did not wear miniskirts like back in Indonesia. When he asked the king what it was like to have 12 wives, he replied it was "more complicated than Middle East politics."

Saudis tried to give Obama jewelry. It made him think of "the Somali pirates I had ordered killed" and other Muslims "whose earnings in a lifetime would probably never touch the cost of that necklace in my hands." Wonder if Trump gave Saudi gifts back due to ethics rules? Lol.

Obama was told by his data guy that the Henry Louis Gates police controversy hurt his approval among whites more than any other single issue of his presidency, and he never got many of those voters back.

Obama bowed to the Japanese emperor, which conservatives called "treason." According to Obama, “I wondered when exactly such a sizable portion of the American Right had become so frightened and insecure that they’d completely lost their minds.”

I didn't remember the controversy. But it wasn't made up, here's Hannity. Ironically, the heading on his articles then was "The news that is not White House approved."

Important to remember this time, this is what we'll get when Biden goes abroad. https://www.foxnews.com/story/japanese-mortified-by-obamas-bow

Obama was told by Valerie Jarrett that women in the WH were unhappy. One cried after being yelling at. In response, he had dinner with a dozen female staffers, where they told him they were uncomfortable with all the shouting and cursing during debates. Obama tried to do better

Obama met a soldier who had been injured in an IED blast in Afghanistan. He had suffered permanent brain damage. The soldier's mother pointed out to Obama that they had met before. It was one year earlier, when he met the president before his 10th deployment to Afghanistan.

Obama says you can't expect democracy to accomplish too many good things in a large, multi-racial society. Best you can hope for is incremental improvements in GDP and the social safety net. "Our diversity means we must think small" is not an opinion I expected him to hold.