As president of the Harvard Law Review, Barack Obama gave voice to a mix of conservative and liberal ideas and "maneuvered his way around pretty well," says the author of a new book about Harvard Law School. Politico dissects Obama's 1990-91 tenure in search of omens in the story of a young black man elected to head a tradition-bound, white-dominated institution.
Obama “was as much a traditionalist as anything,” says Susan Estrich, a fellow ex-Law Review president and onetime Dukakis adviser who's now a professor. "It was a big deal that he got the presidency. He was selected because of merit, and he believed in the institution and its history." (More Barack Obama stories.)