Character is fate

In The Audacity of Hope, whose publication in the fall of 2006 effectively turned what was first billed as a book tour into a march toward the New Hampshire primary, Obama cops a plea to the quintessential qualification for any presidential candidate: “a chronic restlessness, an inability to appreciate, no matter how well things were going, those blessings that were right there in front of me.” He has tried to turn this to his advantage. “I know I haven’t spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington,” he said in announcing that he would run for president. “But I’ve been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change.” Obama’s restlessness is a quality that would lead him to conclude, again and again, that the time had come to make a move — to take a chance, to aim higher — when others told him to wait his turn. Far more often than not, his timing has been right.

As the presidential campaign whirls through the front-loaded primary season, Obama’s character has been under high magnification. The main point of attack is that he is not “tough enough” or experienced enough; New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd titled a column about him “The 46-Year-Old Virgin.” Hillary Clinton has openly encouraged this derisive assessment for many months. At the same time, coming across as too tough and gritty-too skilled at the sharp-elbowed arts of politics-will undermine the very qualities that make Obama attractive in the first place.

“This campaign cannot be about me,” Obama told a cheering crowd in Chicago on the weekend he declared his candidacy, a year ago. “I am an imperfect vessel for your hopes and dreams.” But, for better or worse, his own campaign is all about him and the compelling idea he embodies.

Excerpted from Todd Purdum’s ‘Raising Obama’ in the February issue of Vanity Fair