The New Yorker: “On and Off the Road with Barack Obama”

Even as Obama travels for campaign alms and is as entangled in the funding system at least as much as any other politician, he insists that his commitment is to the middle class and the disadvantaged. Last summer, he received a letter from a single mother struggling to support herself and her daughter on a minimal income. She was drowning: I need help. I can’t imagine being out in the streets with my daughter and if I don’t get some type of relief soon, I’m afraid that’s what may happen. Copy to Senior Advisers, Obama wrote at the bottom of the letter. This is the person we are working for. David Remnick

Very interesting insight into the life of the current US president, from minor trivia about day-to-day procedures to the tedious process of gathering support for initiatives, to his personal philosophy about what it means to be a good president and his perspective on history, the so-called ‘long view’. While it does sound good in principle, a bit too idealistic maybe, I have a feeling that in the current context pragmatism and decisiveness would serve the US president better.