Obama's Political Coming-of-Age

I got a lot out of Ryan Lizza's article, "Making It," in the current New Yorker. Lizza provides a copiously-sourced account of Obama's political coming-of-age in Chicago, a subject the candidate has generally avoided in his two published memoirs. Lizza's account corrects a lot of misconceptions about Obama held by both supporters and detractors: Lizza's Obama is neither a revolutionary nor a naif, but probably no more ruthless than his political peers (certainly in Chicago ...). Lizza argues that what's gotten Obama this far politically is a pragmatic approach to coalition-building and an organizational and rhetorical style that he honed in the Chicago of the 1990s and early 2000s:

( Misconceptions, paradoxes )

At one point, Lizza asks a disgruntled former Obama ally from Chicago whether the candidate's shifting alliances and maneuverings were simply inevitable parts of his rapid rise from liberal state senator from Hyde Park to viable presidential candidate. “'Can you get where he is and maintain your personal integrity?' she said. 'Is that the question?' She stared at me and grimaced. 'I’m going to pass on that.'”

Thee article's worth reading in its entirety, notwithstanding the snarky magazine cover ...

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