(Community Matters) If you haven’t had a chance to read the NYT Magazine article on Barack as a law professor and what this suggests about how he’ll run the country as president, you might want to. Some excerpts:
But the men and women who studied with him at Chicago [University of Chicago Law School] echo Escuder’s observation that Obama was much more pragmatic than ideological. . . . He wanted his students to consider the impact laws and judicial opinions had on real people. . . . Obama’s style resonated with students, who packed his classes despite the fact that his obligations as a state senator meant that when the Legislature was in session his courses were held early on Monday morning and on Friday afternoon. . . . they routinely rated him as one of the best teachers at the law school . . . . Based on what I saw in the classroom, my guess is an Obama administration could be summarized in two words, “Ruthless pragmatism.” . . . .
As Obama shepherded students through the evolution of how Americans elect their representatives, Johnson-Weinberger told me, he emphasized how important the rules of the game were in determining who won elections. That background in voting law . . . played a factor in Obama’s primary triumph over Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. “He understood how important the caucus states would be, and he grasped that voters in African-American Congressional districts would have a disproportionate impact in selecting the nominee.” “I think one of the reasons he said yes to this race is that he grasped the structural path to victory.” full article
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