Obama: His Words and His Deeds

David Bromwich

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Charles Dharapak/AP Images

Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu at a meeting in the Oval Office, May 20, 2011

President Obama retains the wish to be seen as a man above party; and a more general distaste for politics is also involved. But what is Barack Obama if not a politician? By his tones of voice and selection of venues he has implied several possibilities: organizer, pastor, school principal, counselor on duties and values. Most prominently, over the past six months he seems to have improvised the role (from materials left behind by Reagan) of a kind of national host or moderator of the concerns of Americans.


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