Understanding Obama
Two years into his presidency, voters are still asking, “Who is Barack Obama? What does he really believe?” James Kloppenberg, the Charles Warren Professor of American History, set out to answer those questions in his new book “Reading Obama: Dreams, Hope, and the American Political Tradition.” Yet even his careful analysis of Obama’s pre-White House books, speeches, and other writings leaves room for speculation, as evidenced by the give-and-take over the impact of Obama’s presidency during a “20 Questions” panel talk on March 10, sponsored by the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard. The five panelists, moderated by Homi Bhabha, the Mahindra Humanities Center director, batted around concepts of political pragmatism and reasonable debate, and discussed the re-immergence of a bona fide intellectual as the nation’s leader after the “God and guts” direction of the Bush administration, as Bhabha put it. In his interviews with people who knew Obama in all stages of life,...