In Harvard Law Review Presidency, Signs for the Future

Let in conservative ideas, kept even keel
By Jonas Oransky,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 23, 2008 4:51 PM CDT
In Harvard Law Review Presidency, Signs for the Future
The Harvard Law Review Board of Editors for the 1990-1991 academic year. At center, holding the staff, is Barack Obama, the year he became the first black president of the Harvard Law Review.   (AP Photo)

As president of the Harvard Law Review, Barack Obama gave voice to a mix of conservative and liberal ideas and "maneuvered his way around pretty well," says the author of a new book about Harvard Law School. Politico dissects Obama's 1990-91 tenure in search of omens in the story of a young black man elected to head a tradition-bound, white-dominated institution.

Obama “was as much a traditionalist as anything,” says Susan Estrich, a fellow ex-Law Review president and onetime Dukakis adviser who's now a professor. "It was a big deal that he got the presidency. He was selected because of merit, and he believed in the institution and its history." (More Barack Obama stories.)

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