The dangerous new Obama book - Glenn Thrush and Dylan Byers - POLITICO.com: “Still, if a lot of prospective voters, who do have their doubts about him, actually read it when it comes out, they’ll find a portrait of a very ambitious but very shrewd, cautious, thoughtful and intuitive guy. In the same way Maraniss explained people as vividly diverse as Bill Clinton and Vince Lombardi, he nails Obama,” Warren added.
The problem is that Obama doesn’t want to be nailed down. He is a control freak when it comes to messaging his own life — he won’t utter any words he thinks he couldn’t have written himself, and often lays out detailed blueprints of his speeches before letting his speech-writing staff have at it.
In moments of uncertainty, Obama picks up a pen to recenter himself. He did it when he was a young man struggling to define himself. And he did it in early 2008 when he wrote a moving, personal speech on race at a time when the firestorm over his controversial pastor Jeremiah Wright threatened to engulf his campaign.