John Heilemann's account of the Obama-Clinton relationship for New York magazine is overlong and contains no significant new information but it does have some nice quotes, including a particularly striking one from Neera Tanden, who has been a senior policy advisor to both Hillary Clinton and Obama:
[Bill] Clinton, being Clinton, had plenty of advice in mind and was desperate to impart it. But for the first two years of Obama’s term, the phone calls Clinton kept expecting rarely came. “People say the reason Obama wouldn’t call Clinton is because he doesn’t like him,” observes Tanden. “The truth is, Obama doesn’t call anyone, and he’s not close to almost anyone. It’s stunning that he’s in politics, because he really doesn’t like people. My analogy is that it’s like becoming Bill Gates without liking computers."
Obama's clearly an introvert. A lot of the grief he gets is because he doesn't like chatting. It sounds like he likes to be by himself or with a small group to make decisions (slooooowly) - classic introvert behaviour.
Posted by: Elemjay | October 16, 2012 at 10:57 AM