Understanding Obama

Many biographers have told and retold Barack Obama's story.  Yet we are still left wondering what makes Obama tick.  What accounts for his remarkable poise, self confidence, his sense of narrative and of his long view of history?  How as he developed a governing style that is both radical and at the same time classically conservative?  How can we separate the natural political mythology that must surround anyone who would be President, from the psychological reality that defines that President.  Award winning journalist Sasha Abramsky interviewed close to one hundred of Obama's current and former friends, colleagues, classmates, teachers, staff, mentors, sports buddies, fellow Chicago activists, media consultants, editors and even his next-door neighbors. Each has filled in a piece of the mosaic to creates Abmsky's whole picture Inside Obama's Brain.  My conversation with Sasha Abramsky: