And incidentally, it casts Nicholas’ complaints in yet another light: he’s just bitching because someone else got the scoop. The Newsweek reporters were clearly given quite a bit of access, and there’s quite a bit of Obama’s personal, introspective experience laid out there. It’s all complimentary even if it makes clear that he has his weaknesses and vanities. Maybe this is just a guy who is that way: reserved, intellectual, a bit indecisive or self-conscious. Maybe some people aren’t hiding lust or corruption or vapidity or fury.

The whole article is good:

“I’m still wrapping my head around doing this in a way that I think the other candidates just aren’t. There’s a certain ambivalence in my character that I like about myself. It’s part of what makes me a good writer, you know? It’s not necessarily useful in a presidential campaign.” …. On the tape, after Obama’s rueful remark about the mixed blessings of his detached nature, there is cross talk and laughter, and then Axelrod cracks, “You can save that for your next memoir.”