Today while I was doing a small bit of research in order to make the point that Barack Obama was first an editor and then the president of the Harvard Law Review, I came across this:
[Obama] got himself elected by convincing a crucial swing bloc of conservatives that he would protect their interests if they supported him. Building up that trust was done with the same kind of long listening sessions he had used in the poor neighborhoods of South Side, Chicago. Richard Epstein, who later taught at the University of Chicago Law School when Obama later taught there, said Obama was elected editor “because people on the other side believed he would give them a fair shake.”
So Obama established his m.o. quite early as the bring-em-together conciliator as well as the guy who listens. And if not for these conservatives who voted for him, he would never have gotten the credentials that catapulted him into the public eye (he received huge media coverage and a book contract from his selection as HLR president).
Fast forward to the 2008 election and the wooing of such “conservatives” such as David Brooks, Christopher Buckley, Colin Powell, and these people, who were all instrumental in convincing themselves and then the public that Barack Obama would exhibit those very same traits and be president of us all. This was especially attractive after the divisive Bush years.
So now, when Obama fumes at Republican refusal to “compromise,” it is likely that he is actually being sincere rather than disingenuous. After all, he is accustomed to getting what he wants from conservatives, and may rarely have faced a situation before where the stakes were high enough for the opposition to take a firm stance and not be quickly swayed by his silver tongue and his let-us-reason-together demeanor. As president of the Harvard Law Review, Obama is reported to have “ended minor disputes with the words, ‘Just remember, folks: Nobody reads it.’”
That may have worked back then. Unfortunately for Obama, people are “reading it” now.
Previously a lifelong Democrat, born in New York and living in New England, surrounded by liberals on all sides, I've found myself slowly but surely 
September 8th, 2011 at 3:22 pm
A substantial number of center/right ‘conservative’ and independent voters took the election as a referendum on their own and this country’s racism. Their vote for Obama was a proxy vote for “we are not racists” giving us our first affirmative action president. I suspect many whites throughout his tenure at Harvard and his stint as community organizer were relieved every time Obama walked through the door. Not being a Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton replicant goes a long way in white ‘conservative’ circles frightened of being branded racists.
September 8th, 2011 at 3:31 pm
Might want to add Peggy Noonan to that list. At times it seemed Camille Paglia had more reservations about Obama than Noonan. Still have trouble wrapping my head around that one.
September 8th, 2011 at 3:50 pm
The NYT had an article on Obama’s time at Harvard. It was interesting that both in the 2008 campaign and at Harvard, he appeared to be all things to all people, with opposing sides believing Obama sided with THEM.
The NYT article said that at Harvard Obama did this by making noncommittal spirit-of-the-meeting comments, which meant that opposing sides could believe he was with them.
September 8th, 2011 at 4:28 pm
George Pal – I think there’s also the issue of young white “conservative” voters not having the experience of having black bosses, mentors, etc. Perhaps someday they will learn that educated, well-spoken scoundrels come in every color. Although I must laugh at my own use of “well-spoken” because every time someone speaks of his eloquence, I think “You need to hear a good preacher and see what a poor imitation Obama is” (and I’m not talking Rev. Wright).
Rickbert – I haven’t broken the code on Noonan, but she seems to have a set of class markers for her treatment of public figures like Obama, Palin, etc. Alma mater and occupation count for some of it. Sometimes I’ve been stumped, though. I was reading her biography of the last pope and somehow she worked in the story of a colleague (whom she named) as publicly having an affair with her fiance. It was jarring to say the least.
September 8th, 2011 at 5:14 pm
So now, when Obama fumes at Republican refusal to “compromise,” it is likely that he is actually being sincere rather than disingenuous.
The moral indignation of a con artist…at some level it’s actually sincere.
Obama is a poster child for the hustlers who have taken advantage of the nation’s goodwill.
September 8th, 2011 at 5:57 pm
There are many Dilbert strips where The Pointy Hair Boss (PHB) is shown “listening” to one of his engineers and not actually listening.
September 8th, 2011 at 8:37 pm
I politely beg your pardon but true “conservatives” did not endorse nor vote for Zero. Some republicans may have as well as many independents but not conservatives that are able to resist a major mass media coverup.
Those that McCain did not appeal to either sat it out or held their nose and gave him a vote (like me).
True conservatives saw through Zero’s socialist bent, his record of non-achievement and did not swoon to his sweet words and carefully crafted image campaign.
It amazes me how so many intelligent people cannot see or feel what is so rudely slapping them in the face while they beg for more.
Thank you sir, may I please have another?
September 8th, 2011 at 8:44 pm
The first rubes. I wonder what they are doing now.
September 8th, 2011 at 9:35 pm
CZ: that’s why I put “conservatives” in quotes the second time I said it in the post.
September 8th, 2011 at 10:07 pm
Jesus Christ, what a bunch of prevaricating Oxygen thieves .. May they all burn in a very low corner of Hell
September 8th, 2011 at 10:15 pm
As president of the Harvard Law Review, Obama is reported to have “ended minor disputes with the words, ‘Just remember, folks: Nobody reads it.’” So, he was a cynical poseur already back then.
September 9th, 2011 at 1:34 am
It may be cynical, but it’s also true. Nobody reads law review articles. The language is impenetrable and the topics are obscure. Vanity publications for the legal education industry.
September 9th, 2011 at 6:29 pm
“‘Just remember, folks: Nobody reads it.’”?
Maybe if, instead of letting Obama end disputes by saying “Nobody reads it”, the HLR had resolved disputes by actually choosing a realistic option, people would have read it.
September 12th, 2011 at 2:47 pm
Colin Powell was the architect of the disaster in Iraq. His goals have little to do with conservative anything.