The Errant Æsthete

In-depth piece by Ryan Lizza in The New Yorker on Barak Obama’s retooled presidential campaign – with only seven weeks remaining before the Iowa Caucases.

“Hard truths” could be the slogan for the re-started Obama campaign, which, until the October 30th Democratic debate in Philadelphia, had been viewed as listless and fading. … [He] has begun to embrace positions that a generation of Democrats have been advised to avoid. … David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist, described the new, unfettered Obama: “The public is looking for someone who will level with them, even when it means telling them things that they don’t necessarily agree with or want to hear. They value honesty. They value candor. They value straightforwardness. They don’t want calculation and parsing. They don’t want someone who confers with their pollster on every move.”