Journalist Jonathan Alter to Speak at Occidental College on Obama’s Leadership

Jonathan Alter, Newsweek senior editor and author of the new book, The Promise: President Obama, Year One, will speak at Occidental College on Monday, Nov. 15, at 6 p.m. in Johnson Hall, Room 200. The event is free and open to the public.

In his talk, "Can Obama Get His Groove Back?," Alter will analyze the president's first two years in office and the effect he's had on the recent midterm elections, which saw a resurgence in Republican power in both the House and Senate. His talk will be preceded from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. by an informal reception and book signing of "The Promise" in Morrison Lounge, located on the second floor of the College's Johnson Student Center. Copies will be offered for sale by the Occidental bookstore.

Alter's new book draws on interviews with more than 200 people, including the president and his top aides, allowing Alter to examine everything from the economic bailouts and healthcare reform to the military surge in Afghanistan. Kirkus Reviews calls the book "a freshman-year report card for the sitting president, with mixed but generally good grades."

The longtime journalist first met Obama in 2002, when the president was an Illinois state senator. Since then, Alter encountered the future president several more times, and wrote the first national magazine cover story about him. A year into his presidency, Obama stated on CBS's "60 Minutes" that he had been studying The Defining Moment, Alter's 2006 book on the first 100 days of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration.

The College's Office of Global Affairs is sponsoring Alter's Nov. 15 book signing and talk. For maps and directions to Occidental College, located at 1600 Campus Road, Los Angeles, Calif., go to: http://www.oxy.edu/x119.xml.

For more information about Jonathan Alter, go to: http://jonathanalter.typepad.com/.