Obama Gets Energy From Discussion

What will Barack Obama look like when one sees him at a distance of 30 centimeters?

He is well-known for enjoying discussions on pending issues with his close aides. At first, he listens to his staff while leaning against the chair with his feet put on a table and his eyes closed.

If the discussion strays into a direction that he does not like, he sits up and begins leading the discussion.

“He usually thinks if somebody is very quiet it`s because they disagree with what everybody is saying … so Barack will call on you and say, ‘You`ve been awfully quiet,’” said Obama’s senior counselor Michael Strautmanis during an interview with Newsweek.

Obama’s chief strategist David Axelrod gave a glimpse of a two-hour “caustic” debate carried out at a campaign office in Chicago right after Obama took a beating in Texas and Ohio primaries on March 4.

“Obama encouraged officials who feel dejected after the defeat and entered the conference room where he reflected upon himself and asked for an analysis for the defeats,” the Washington Post quoted him as saying.

Axelrod said, “Sen. Obama tried to identify the causes of the defeat by analyzing what he wrote down during the campaign and by going over where his campaign fund was spent.”

However, he does not intervene in detailed schedules, according to campaign manager David Plouffe. “Let’s take Ohio primaries for example. He decided to go out canvassing in five places, and then left everything in the hands of the staff, such as where to go first.”

Obama is also proverbial for not revealing his agitated emotions. “For four years with him, I witnessed him yelling at his staff twice,” said one of his closet aides.

triplets@donga.com