Dear Madam President by Jennifer Palmieri

Dear Madam President: An Open Letter to the Women Who Will Run the World by Jennifer Palmieri
Narrator: the author
Published by Grand Central Publishing on March 27, 2018
Source: Purchased
Genres: Politics
Length: 2 hrs 34 mins
Pages: 192
Format: Audiobook
Purchase at Bookshop.org or Purchase at Amazon
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Dear Madam President is an empowering letter from former Hillary Clinton Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri to the first woman president, and by extension, to all women working to succeed in any field. By using lessons learned during her experiences with Hillary Clinton, President Obama, and Elizabeth Edwards—to name a few—Palmieri through each chapter creates a forward-thinking framework of inspirational and practical advice for all women everywhere—from boardrooms to living rooms—who are determined to seize control of their lives, their workplaces, and their country. Dear Madam President will turn the results of the 2016 election into something incredibly empowering for future female leaders and independent thinkers everywhere.

As a country, we haven't wrapped our heads around what it should look like for a woman to be in the job of President. Our only models are men. This of course was seen during the Hillary Clinton campaign, and no one knows this better than Jennifer Palmieri. While wildly disappointed by the outcome of the election, Palmieri optimistically argues in the book that the Clinton candidacy and all she experienced on the campaign trail—confusion, admiration, hate, love, acceptance, rejection—can now open the country up to reimagining women in leadership roles. And that is what Palmieri takes on in this book—redefining expectations for women looking to lead and creating a blueprint for women candidates and leaders to follow.

First of all, I’m tired of these articles/essays pretending to be books. I picked up the audio of this one for a couple of reasons, but it was only like 2½ hours long. At 190-ish pages, that’s really short. I don’t know if the pages are an odd size or the print is huge, but it’s a bit of a rip off for the price, hardback or audio, in my opinion.

Onto the reasons I picked Dear Madam President up. From the blurb, I knew Jennifer Palmieri was the Director of Communications for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign who I did vote for, but it also assured me that it was a not solely about that campaign, that it was a book for all women regardless of politics. The reviews on Goodreads and Amazon are overwhelmingly positive. I read the opening on Margot’s blog, Joyfully Retired, last week and it caught my attention.

I have to say I was a little disappointed. Palmieri has some great advice and some truly valid points. The lessons she’s learned over her life, through the Clinton campaign, yes, but other times to, are worth sharing. I guess I just expected there to be more. Her ideas are good and she tells everything in an easy-going, relatable way. And it does have that “rah-rah, go women” thing going for it, but it could have been developed more.