With Obama, Introspection Makes a Comeback

President-elect is pragmatic, but his thinking is mysterious

By Gabriel Winant, Newser User

Posted Jan 14, 2009 11:38 AM CST

(Newser) – Looking at President Bush gets John Dickerson wondering, in Slate, if anything complex is going on behind the simple facade (Answer: Probably not). President-elect Obama prompts a different question: “How much of his true thinking is he actually sharing with us?” Obama, unlike Bush, is deeply self-reflective, and seems to constantly be creating and crafting himself: “Pragmatic is becoming the word of his presidency.”

If Obama’s political style comes from his introspective, memoirist personality, “Since he recognizes the personal roots of his own style of he, he may be more likely to see others’ motivations as well.” On the other hand, Obama risks being sphinx-like to outsiders, Dickerson notes: “The danger for politicians who practice excessive pragmatism is that it’s hard to know where they stand.”

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (2)]

President-elect Barack Obama speaks to reporters during his meeting with Mexico's President Felipe Calderon, not pictured, in Washington on Monday. (AP Photo)

In this photograph provided by ABC News, President-elect Barack Obama is interviewed by George Stephanopoulos during the taping of "This Week" Saturday, Jan. 10, 2009 at the Newseum in Washington. (AP Photo/This Week, Lauren Victoria Burke)

President George W. Bush takes a question at his last formal news conference on Monday. (AP Photo)

« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow

Obama didn't spend a lot of time during the presidential campaign talking about his inner feelings, but it was clear when he did that he'd been taking careful soundings all along, not just about the circumstances but about his emotional landscape. -

Obama's penchant for writing and rewriting his story as he's living it has echoes in the policy world as well. Each new president is a work in progress as his policy is matched up to his rhetoric. But Obama seems particularly unpredictable. -

« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow

To report an error on this story, notify our editors.

More Newser Stories

Bush More Popular Than Obama: Poll

Plus: Guess who's the most popular president ever?

(NEWSER) - In honor of Presidents' Day, pollsters have ranked the most popular presidents ever—and it turns out George W. Bush is slightly more popular than our current leader, at least by one measure. Some 46% of Americans see President Obama favorably, and 49% have a negative view of him, marking a 3-point favorability gap. Bush has just a one-point gap, with 45% approving and 46% disapproving of him, Public Policy Polling reports. Indeed, Republicans despise Obama more than any other demographic hates any other president—12% to 84%. More»

Detroit Bust Would've Been Better Than Bailout

Ex-Prez Bush says bailout his idea, and a good one

(NEWSER) - Three years ago, Mitt Romney wrote that President Obama should " Let Detroit Go Bankrupt ," instead of bailing out the struggling auto industry, in a famous New York Times column. And today? Even with the American auto industry on the rebound, Michigan's GOP primary looming on Feb. 28, and Rick Santorum breathing down his neck in the polls , Romney still thinks bankruptcy would have been better than the president's "crony capitalism," he writes in the Detroit News . "I believe that without his intervention things there would be better," he writes. More»

How Much Did Obama Really Add to Deficit?

Ezra Klein crunches the numbers and comes up with a lower total than you think

(NEWSER) - Mitt Romney has taken to carrying around a debt clock, blaming President Obama for the ever-climbing number it shows. But the clock doesn't show how much Obama has actually added to that debt, so Ezra Klein set out to find out. "There are two answers," he writes in the Washington Post . The first, which is "simple and wrong" is $4.7 trillion. That's what you get when you subtract the debt when Obama took office (about $10.5 trillion) from the current debt (about $15.2 trillion). More»

Speech Was Obama's 'Mission Accomplished'

All he needed was a flight suit

(NEWSER) - He may not have unfurled a banner or donned a flight suit, “but make no mistake: President Obama gave his own version of a ‘mission accomplished’ speech last night,” writes Dana Milbank of the Washington Post . Last night the president declared—“perhaps prematurely”—that the Afghanistan surge had been successful, and that he would “drawdown from a position of strength,” a line eerily reminiscent of George W. Bush’s “return on success.” More»

Obama Doctrine? He Just Borrowed Bush's

His Mideast plan is the same as his predecessor's: Charles Krauthammer

(NEWSER) - Analysts keep looking to define an Obama Doctrine, but after listening to the president's Mideast speech yesterday , Charles Krauthammer thinks it's easy: The Obama Doctrine is the Bush Doctrine, Krauthammer writes in the Washington Post . Bush "made the spread of democracy the key US objective in the Middle East," and Obama is fully on board. He even praised Iraq yesterday as a beacon of democracy for the region. All "hail the Bush-Obama doctrine." More»

NEWS FROM OUR PARTNERS

What is Newser?

Face it: there's too much news. At Newser, we choose the most thought-provoking and entertaining stories from hundreds of US and international sources and reduce them to a headline, picture, and two paragraphs. And we do it 24/7—you can come back morning, noon, night (and in between) for something new that matters. Read less, know more.

Learn more »

Partnering with: Slate

View Newser on the mobile website

With Obama, Introspection Makes a Comeback