Review: Here's the Deal

Here's the Deal by Kellyanne Conway
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’m not what I consider a Kellyanne Conway fan, but I find her intriguing and in many ways admirable. What I found admirable was her ability to think on her feet, while being televised to thousands, or even millions. She covers this in her book, and says that she often had to appear on these contentious “news” shows without much support from the administration. Without a net. I remember her usually holding her own in these encounters, mostly without resorting to ridiculous logic or ridiculing people. She covers in some detail her accidental coining of the phrase “alternative facts”. This seems like one of the things that she was most sorry she was connected to.

The intriguing part of her story is her relationship with her husband. Her story with her husband starts very conventionally, albeit with more than the average amount of money involved. George is well off, and has a high paying job as a lawyer when they dated and early in their marriage. Then as Kellyanne gets closer to Trump and becomes more valuable to the administration, her description of George changes. He becomes an unbalanced internet troll. Each time she mentions him, he comes off worse, more unbalanced, less reasoned. It comes as a complete surprise when Kellyanne leaves her position in the White House to spend more time with her family and her husband. She doesn’t explain what happened, was she coerced? Is she treating this like she’s her husband’s caretaker? It is written very oddly.

Also intriguing is whether she is a reliable narrator. She comes across as always the hero of her story. She rarely, if ever, describes mistakes. When an autobiography makes the subject sound almost perfect, you do wonder where the story has been stretched. I suspect as time goes on that others will weigh in with Trump White House and campaign stories that shed new light on the people involved. It will be interesting to see how much of Kellyanne’s story survives contact.

You may wonder if she trashes anyone. Yes. Key targets of her ill will are Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon.

Overall, I enjoyed the stories. I cringed at her relationship with her husband. And I appreciated her ability to research, to lead a campaign, to build a business, and to talk and be quick on her feet.


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