CBS’s Smith Gives Glowing Review of Book By Soldier/Obama Volunteer

On Friday’s CBS Early Show co-host Harry Smith interviewed Afghanistan war veteran and Obama campaign volunteer Craig Mullaney, author of "The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier’s Education," and praised the book: "What a wonderful story, the arc, blue-collar kid decides to go to West Point, even ends up in Oxford before he ends up in Afghanistan. Ranger school...And look at you, receiving your diploma from Al Gore, no less....Such a pleasure to meet you. It is such a wonderful, wonderful read. So thoughtful and so articulate. And such good writing. Really appreciate it."

Smith did make vague mention of Mullaney’s political connection to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign: "Fast forward, you come out of the service, decide to become involved politically. You're involved with President Obama now. He's going to announce this in -- another increase in troops in Afghanistan. The thing that people whisper about, the concern they have for this president, will Afghanistan be this president's Vietnam? Does that worry you?" Mullaney replied: "I worry about a lack of patience in the American public. It's been a long time since we've focused on Afghanistan. And we've lost a lot of ground over the last seven years. And it's going to take a big effort to garner the resources necessary to really turn the situation around."

During the 2008 campaign, Mullaney wrote a letter to military families on behalf of the Obama campaign to encourage them to vote for Obama-Biden ticket:

My name is Craig Mullaney and I’m helping to mobilize veterans and military family members in Western Pennsylvania… I’d never voted or been involved in our political system, but in Barack Obama I saw a future Commander-in-Chief who could put our country and our military strategy on the right track. And so, I volunteered once more. Ten days after I left the Army, I joined this campaign.

In my interactions with Barack, I’ve found a leader with tremendous strength of character; a independent, pragmatic, and thoughtful intelligence; and steady judgment. I found a man of family values who even on the campaign trail calls his children every night before they go to bed. I found a man with deep spiritual strength and compassion who consistently thanks his staff, his drivers, his secret service agents, and the millions who’ve joined his campaign. Cameras or no cameras, Barack is the same man: honest, accountable, and committed. In short, in Barack Obama I found a leader I could trust. And last week, I cast the first vote of my life for Barack Obama and Joe Biden. With your help, they’ll bring change we can believe in to the White House on January 20, 2009.

Here is the full transcript of the Early Show segment:

8:01AM TEASE:

HARRY SMITH: Also ahead, a soldier's story. A retired Army captain who served in Afghanistan is going to tell us about his combat experiences and why we need to pay attention to President Obama's new plan for the Afghan war, which will be announced today.

8:31AM TEASE:

SMITH: Also ahead, I'll be speaking with a fascinating gentleman, a military man, a teacher, author, who has just written a moving new book about what he learned as he fought Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

8:34AM SEGMENT:

HARRY SMITH: President Obama is announcing plans to send more troops to Afghanistan today. One person who knows first hand about that war is retired Army Captain Craig Mullaney, who wrote about his experience 'The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier's Education.' Good to meet you.

CRAIG MULLANEY: Good to meet you, Harry.

SMITH: What a wonderful story, the arc, blue-collar kid decides to go to West Point, even ends up in Oxford before he ends up in Afghanistan. Ranger school. What made you decide to become a soldier?

MULLANEY: It was a sense of service my grandfather had, sort of, imbued in my family, and like any 17-year-old, looking for adventure and purpose at West Point.

SMITH: And look at you, receiving your diploma from Al Gore, no less. And there's ranger school with your father. So many lessons learned as you illustrate in this book. Things that you learned in these schools. The difference between what you learned in school versus the most important lessons of the battlefield were what?

MULLANEY: I think the thing you don't learn is that courage isn't the absence of fear, but being able to face fear and work through it. And that courage comes from the responsibility you have to those you lead. And if it weren't for the men underneath me, I don't think I'd be able to pick up the pieces again after we lost one of our own and go back out.

SMITH: Because that was one of the other lessons you talked about, because you went in thinking leadership is 'how do I push these people to do this stuff?' Leadership isn't about that. It's about how to get them to come along with you, right?

MULLANEY: They have to know how much you care about them before they'll follow you anywhere. And, you know, that's -- that's the hard work. You realize that you are responsible for their lives. And it's about the stuff that goes back home and making sure that they've got their finances in order, making sure that they get promoted when they're supposed to get promoted. And you do all of those things over time so that when it counts and you need to give an order, they trust you.

SMITH: Yeah. It is really is about-

MULLANEY: And trust is the backbone of everything.

SMITH: Yeah, it really is about that. Fast forward, you come out of the service, decide to become involved politically. You're involved with President Obama now. He's going to announce this in -- another increase in troops in Afghanistan. The thing that people whisper about, the concern they have for this president, will Afghanistan be this president's Vietnam? Does that worry you?

MULLANEY: I worry about a lack of patience in the American public. It's been a long time since we've focused on Afghanistan. And we've lost a lot of ground over the last seven years. And it's going to take a big effort to garner the resources necessary to really turn the situation around. But it can be done. And General Petraeus says 'hard is not hopeless.' Afghanistan's hard, but there's a lot of reasons for hope.

SMITH: Such a pleasure to meet you. It is such a wonderful, wonderful read. So thoughtful and so articulate. And such good writing. Really appreciate it.

MULLANEY: Thank you, Harry.

SMITH: We appreciate it very much. Captain Craig -- Crag Mullaney, do appreciate it. To read an excerpt from 'The Unforgiving Minute,' go to our website. That's earlyshow.cbsnews.com.