• Tommy Newberry, The War on Success: How the Obama Agenda Is Shattering the American Dream, New York: Regency, 2010, 252 pages, $24.95.

When I first started reading Tommy Newberry’s book, The War on Success: How the Obama Agenda Is Shattering the American Dream, I thought, I hate this book! I cannot review it. It presented all of the scary things that Obama and the Democrat-led Congress are doing that have the potential to destroy our great country. But thankfully, I stuck with the book. In presenting the negative, Newberry lays the groundwork to present positive actions that can offset the agenda of the current administration.

“For two decades, I have devoted my life to figuring out what separates the successful from the unsuccessful, the winners from the losers,” says Newberry, a motivational speaker and best-selling author. To answer this question, he worked with thousands of entrepreneurs and realized how important these individuals are to this country. He became disturbed by then-candidate Barack Obama’s “divisive rhetoric and his subsequent punitive policy proposals,” which confused Newberry. He is also confused by Obama’s anti- business attitude.

His research shows that Obama possesses the qualities that are common in most successful people. “These individuals set what seem like unrealistic goals,” says Newberry. Through his unlikely rise, from the Illinois state Senate, to the U.S. Senate, and then to the presidency in just a little over four years, Obama has realized the American dream of success and amassed great wealth.

Yet, Newberry notes that Obama is proposing policies that will prevent others from realizing the same goals.

Newberry provides the reader with “Be Street Smart: Master the Statist Vocabulary List,” defining “statist” as “one who believes in the superiority of government over individual citizens.” The vocabulary list also allows the reader to understand how the statist thinks, providing statist definitions for words like capitalism (the deliberate exploitation of the poor and middle class by the wealthy).

“Socialism sounds really nice,” states Newberry. “Sounding best to those who understand it the least.” He points out that socialism directly contradicts Biblical principals and includes a chart called “Socialism vs. the Bible,” explaining why he believes the Bible and Judeo-Christian values continually are under attack.

Tommy Newberry is concerned about the future of the United States, but he is optimistic. He points out that “staying positive does not mean remaining passive.”

Throughout the book, he uses the analogy of the frog that is put into cold water and lulled into complacency as the water warms, never noticing that he is being cooked. Newberry no longer thinks that this analogy applies to Americans; in fact, he sees Americans as frogs ready to jump out of the water.

Unlike many current conservative authors who merely point out what is happening in the U.S. while offering few concrete calls to action, Newberry provides the reader a simple, five-day plan to help them get started as grass-roots activists. He feels that one of the biggest misconceptions today is that “complex problems require complex solutions.” His counters by saying that simple is always better, pointing to the massive health care bill as an example of how Washington does not understand this concept.

Newberry opens with a letter to President Obama, taking him to task for his anti-business attitudes that are contrary to American free-enterprise traditions. In all caps, Newberry beseeches the President to “STOP THE WAR ON SUCCESS!”

Although Newberry opens on a negative note, he ends the book on a positive with letters from the American Dream Letter Writing Contest, which he sponsored. Written to children and grandchildren, these heartwarming letters tell the stories of hard-working family member who have made this county what it is today.

I was glad that I did not put this book on the shelf to gather dust.